On Thils Date in History, Sept 25:

1913 - Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo Possum, was born.  I heard people all during my formative years say you have to read the papers to understand Pogo.  I tried that several times and didn't get it.  I even asked people that had said that about Pogo and the paper to please point out a good example.  They couldn't, except one of the characters spoke with a British accent.

Read Doonesbury, you don't have to read the newspapers it will point out things that should have been there but isn't.

Speaking of Walt Kelly my hero the late Harvey Kurtzman (creator of MAD comicbook) had a rude encounter with Kelly one time.  He went to the newspaper where Kelly was working the city editor's desk.  Harvey wanted to ask him some questions on how to get into the cartooning profession and Kelly gave him the "bum's rush".