I Go Pogo, myself
Walt Kelly (1913-73) was a cartoonist who, in the 1940's, created the POGO comic strip... "which eventually became his platform for political and philosophical commentary." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Kelly
Kelly grew up in Connecticut and began his career as a journalist. He proudly called himself a "newspaper man," as my father did. When I was growing up, re-reading the books of his comic strips was a way for my father and I to connect.
In addition to daily strips, he produced short stories and poems. This one is my favorite of his 'nonsense' poems:
Recently I began to research him, and was surprised to learn that when he set his stories in the Okefenokee Swamp, he had no direct experience of it. He was living in New York City.
From a remembrance printed shortly after his death in TIME magazine (https://time.com/archive/6844717/the-press-bard-of-okefenokee/)
Pogo began taking shape during World War II. Kelly served as a civilian with the Army’s foreign-language unit, where he picked up a special affection for the Southern dialect that was to become the patois of Pogo. (Though Kelly began using the Okefenokee setting in cartoons in 1942, he did not visit the swamp until 1955.)"
CBR (formerly Comic Book Resources) has a good overview of his life and the influence of his work. https://www.cbr.com/pogo-creator-walt-kelly-life-career-history/
Love of the Pogo characters was so strong that after his death in 1973, his family tried to continue to comic strip for a couple of years, and eventually turned it over to a pair of professionals until 1992.
