Our Gang In Dell's MARCH OF COMICS #3

Dell's MARCH OF COMICS was a free comic book given away by stores with their name printed on it as an advertisement. This particular issue was originally published in 1947, and features an Our Gang story by Walt Kelly.

Although Walt Kelly's depiction of Buckwheat has been criticized, he claimed himself to have made the character less of a stereotype, and changed his name from "Buckwheat" to "Bucky"*. I haven't read many of these comics, but I notice here that Buckwheat is the only one of the kids shown to have a job. This echoes the images of black people being gainfully employed in early Pogo stories, which never show white people as having any kind of a job at all. To me, it would seem that Walt Kelly thought he was depicting these black characters in a favorable light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*During that period, the name "Bucky" was used by Marvel for Captain America's kid sidekick, and presumably would have sounded more heroic that "Buckwheat".


Ebony, Buckwheat, and Bombazine:
http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2014/05/ebony-buckwheat-and-bumbazine.html




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Bumbazine in "Albert The Alligator"

 

 

 

An early appearance of Pogo with Albert the Alligator and Bumbazine. Bumbazine would only appear in a few more stories before the series switched entirely to funny animals.

 

 

Reblogged from http://apocolytesworldofcomics.blogspot.com/2010/02/albert-alligator-leaves-swamp-for-big.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm aware of criticism of the way Walt Kelly depicted Buckwheat in "Our Gang" comics. Bumbazine and the other black people in this story look much the same. But it would seem to me that the black people are depicted in a more favorable light than the white people in this story. And there are no women, although there is a character that appears to be a little girl. The one character in POGO that was presumably supposed to be a pretty girl was a skunk. I'd say that all of that was a little strange.  

 

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