The Gingerbread Man The classic comic story by the creator of Pogo of the runaway gingerbread man and his disastrous fate. WALT KELLY (1913-1973) was the creator of Pogo, a comic strip admired by adults and kids alike for its sophisticated political satires clothed in a deceptively pretty style. Kelly perfected this technique during his years as an animator for Walt Disney, most notably on the film Fantasia. In the 1940s he produced stories for Fairy Tale Parade, in which The Gingerbread Man was published, and Animal Comics, where Pogo first appeared.