The Little Rascals as written and drawn by "Pogo"'s Walt Kelly Of the handful of comics' bona fide geniuses, few could match the versatility of artist/writer Walt Kelly. Trained as an animator at Walt Disney Studios (he worked on cartoon shorts and "Pinocchio, Fantasia," and "Dumbo"), Kelly left during a labor dispute in 1941. He immediately began a new career in the burgeoning field of comic books, contributing heavily to various Disney titles for Dell and single-handedly producing its classic fantasy books, "Fairy Tale Parade, Mother Goose," and "Santa Claus Funnies," Along with fellow Disney alumnus Carl Barks, Kelly is now considered one of the two classic "funny animal" artists from the golden age of comics. Surprisingly, Kelly's longest-running continuing series was based on actual people--the "real-life" characters of MGM's durable short-film series, "Our Gang" (a.k.a. "The Little Rascals"). Spirited and engaging, Kelly's "Our Gang" harks back to the days before television, when kids spent most of their time playing outdoors, limited only by each other's creativity and ingenuity. Kelly contributed nearly 100 "Our Gang" stories by the end of its 59-issue run in 1949, the year he quit comic books to switch careers a final time--as creator of the immortal syndicated newspaper strip, Pogo. In "Our Gang"'s second volume, Walt Kelly starts relying more on his original ideas rather than follow the MGM scripts, keeping alive the imagination and charm which had been absent from the film series since the departure of producer Hal Roach in 1938. Suitable for both adults and children, Fantagraphics Books has lovingly restored the work from the original comic books, givingKelly's art a renewed four-color splendor.