PHI BETA POGO <i> edited by Mrs. Walt Kelly and Bill Crouch Jr. (Fireside/Simon & Schuster: $10.95) </i>

As this fifth collection of strips, spot drawings and memorabilia demonstrates, Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” was one of the greatest comic strips in the history of the medium. Bill Watterson, the creator of “Calvin and Hobbes” (one of the few contemporary strips of comparable quality), offers a thoughtful evaluation of Kelly’s talents, as do Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette and veteran Disney animator Ward Kimball.

Included among the reprinted strips are the complete dailies for 1953, the year Kelly introduced Simple J. Malarkey, a devastating caricature of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy. (Kelly drew alternate strips for papers that were afraid print his political satires.)

Juxtaposing examples of Doyle & Sternecky’s new version of strip with Kelly’s originals was a mistake, as the comparisons are inevitable and inevitably unflattering. The real “Pogo’s” delightful mixture of political satire, character comedy and insouciant whimsy reveal just how shoddy the revived strip really is. Pogo, Albert, Churchy, Kelly and the readers all deserve better.