Kelly's work was typified by several things.
Pogo is currently being reprinted in handsome volumes by Fantagraphics. Later, it was revived by Doyle and Sternecky and finally by Kelly's daughter Carolyn.
When he died in 1973, Pogo was continued by his widow Selby. He developed diabetes and had a leg amputated as a result of the disease. Kelly had a fondness for drink and did not look after his health. With all of this, Kelly additionally did a comic book series The Adventures of Peter Wheat, a giveaway comic for Krug's Bakeries and illustrated several books including The Glob by John O'Reilly and I'd Rather Be President by Charles Ellis and Frank Weir. The strip was collected in a series of trade paperbacks that often included original material. In the interim, the strip was the subject of a network animated TV special The Pogo Special Birthday Special, directed by Chuck Jones and a 15 minute animated film, We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us, made by Kelly himself and his third wife Selby. He continued to work on Pogo until his death in 1973.
When the paper folded after just a few years, Pogo was syndicated nationally in 1949 and by the early 1950s became a hit, especially with college students. He was the art director of the paper, doing editorial cartoons and putting Pogo into comic strip form. In the late '40s, Kelly went to work for the New York Star, a liberal daily newspaper that only lasted a few years. Finally, he created the cast of Pogo for Animal Comics. There are four volumes reprinting Kelly's work on this strip. He did the comic book version of Our Gang (later known to baby boomers as The Little Rascals when the films reached TV) and made a conscious effort to draw the Buckwheat character (whose name Kelly shortened to Bucky) in a non-stereotypical manner. He did fairy tale material aimed at young children.
Exempt from the World War II draft for health reasons, Kelly returned to comic books where he did a variety of material that showed off his versatility. At the time of the Disney strike, Kelly left the studio and returned to the east coast.
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