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Walt Kelly takes on Senator Joseph McCarthy in the form of wildcat xCSimple J MalarkeyxD a controversial move at the time and more in this collection of years - of the seminal mid-century newspaper strip Itxs in this volume featuring another two yearsx worth of Pogo strips that we meet one of Walt Kellyxs boldest political caricatures Folks across America had little trouble equating the insidious wildcat Simple J Malarkey with the ascendant anti-Communist senator Joseph McCarthy The subject was sensitive enough that by the following year a Providence Rhode Island newspaper threatened to drop the strip if Malarkeyxs face were to appear in it again Kellyxs response He had Malarkey appear again but put a bag over the characterxs head for his next appearance Ergo his face did not appear Typical of Kellyxs layers of verbal wit the character Malarkey was hiding from was a xCRhode Island RedxD hen referencing both the source of his need to conceal Malarkey and the underlying political controversy The entirety of these sequences can be found in this book But the Malarkey storyline is only a tiny portion of those rich eventful two years which include such classic sequences as con-man Seminole Samxs attempts to corner the market on water which Porkypinexs Uncle Baldwin tries to one-up by cornering the market on dirt a return engagement of Pup Dog and Hounxdogxs blank-eyed Little Orphan Annie parody xCLixl Arf and NonnyxD Churchy La Femme going in drag to deliver a love poem he wrote Cyrano style on Deacon Mush-ratxs behalf to Sis Boombah the aforementioned hen PT Bridgeportxs return to the swamp in search of new talent and of course two rousing choruses of xCDeck Us All With Boston CharliexD In addition to presenting all of and xs daily strips complete and in order for the first time anywhere many of them once again scanned from original syndicate proofs for their crispest and most detailed appearance ever Pogo Volume xCEvidence to the ContraryxD also contains all Sunday strips from these two years presented in lush full color for the first time since their original appearance in Sunday sections years ago x plus the usual in-depth xCSwamp TalkxD historical annotations by RC Harvey spectacular samples of Kellyxs work scanned from original art and a whole lot more Black amp white with pages of color.