KING AROO by Jack Kent

Above: the cover of the new KING AROO collection from IDW.

KING AROO by Jack Kent is a gentle, well drawn strip which ran for 15 years beginning in 1950. And, well, it's not so well remembered.

As Don Markstein says in his Toonpedia entry:

Some comics, like Nancy and The Family Circus, enjoy widespread support among the general public but don't do much for the intellectual crowd. Others, like Barnaby and Krazy Kat, are adored by the intelligentsia but bomb in popularity polls. Jack Kent's King Aroo is one of the latter.

King Aroo was the monarch of Myopia, a pocket kingdom that doesn't seem to appear on most maps. His prime minister, grand vizier, chief advisor, or whatever, was named Yupyop. The two were about equally out of touch with reality and common sense, but Aroo's child-like unconcern for the duties and dignities of a king contrasted with Yupyop's more business-like attitude. Other frequently-seen characters included the mailman, Mr. Pennipost (a kangaroo with an a near-infinite capacity for producing things out of his pouch); and Professor Yorgle, an expert on everything. The strip specialized in an inspired surreality, reminiscent of George Carlson's Pie-face Prince of Pretzelburg but really not quite like anything else in the world.

IDW has a KING AROO collection coming out in January, 2010.

To whet your appetite, Ger Apeldoorn has many scans and information here.

Above: A 1956 Sunday strip.