Word: kats
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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With a reputation for beauty and artistry that has long exceeded its availability, "Krazy Kat," the comic strip by George Herriman that ran between 1918 and 1944, has at last begun a full reprinting with high hopes of finishing the job. First begun by the now-defunct Eclipse Books, which got as far as 1924, Fantagraphics Books has picked up where they left off. "Krazy and Ignatz" (120pp.; $14.95) reprints the full-page, Sunday strips from 1925 and 1926, and will continue to reprint two years-worth of Sundays every year until the end. The common thread throughout is love...
That is the sound of a brick kreasing a kat's kranium. Ignatz Mouse lives for making such a noise, just as Krazy Kat lives to hear it and Officer Pupp lives to prevent it. Krazy, you see, loves Ignatz. For him (or her, as Krazy's gender remains ambiguous) Ignatz' tossed brick arrives with as much love as any bouquet. Completing the ancient dramatic triangle, Officer Pupp's unacknowledged love for Krazy hides behind his bounded duty to prevent all such brick-tossing. Undoubtedly the most remarkable of all variations on a theme, Herriman managed to create decades-worth...
...poetry of "Krazy Kat" goes beyond its ambiguity of meaning. Herriman's images and language make for pure, direct pleasure. The characters live in a fantastical desert landscape made of potted Joshua trees, adobe jails and giant disembodied elephant's feet. As Krazy argues with Ignatz over whether summer comes before winter the background magically changes from panel to panel - Ignatz on a road; Ignatz atop a mesa; Ignatz in a birdbath, etc. Herriman's simple device to keep readers entertained both narratively and visually goes right the heart of a pure comic art. Cartooning has no obligations to reality...
...printing of this masterpiece couldn't be much better. Kudos to the publisher for keeping it an inexpensive softcover instead of going for the totally unnecessary hardcover "collectible" jugular. Herriman's best "Krazy Kat" work appeared in his full-page Sunday strips since this allowed him the most amount of freedom of form. So here they are, printed in chronological order with their date of publication. The collection's designer, Chris Ware (of "Jimmy Corrigan" fame), wisely makes his hand all but invisible. The strips are just black and white because William Randolph Hearst, syndicator and patron saint...
...Krazy and Ignatz" series, should it see its end, will make up a cultural loss as significant as finding a complete version of Eric Von Stroheim's "Greed." Like any great art work, during its own time "Krazy Kat," received as much mystified disdain as it got praise from many of the jazz-age "inelectjools." At least now we will be able to judge for ourselves whether Gilbert Seldes was correct when he wrote in 1924: "Krazy Kat, the daily comic strip of George Herriman is, to me, the most amusing and fantastic and satisfactory work of art produced...