Book Description
Continuing the award-winning Krazy Kat sunday reprints, as designed by Chris Ware.
George Herriman integrated full spectacular color into Krazy Kat in June 1935. The gorgeous evolution continues in our third color volume. Which includes the Sunday strips from all of 1939 and 1940. The color format opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard and designer Chris Ware's files, including an unpublished Herriman painting from the 1920s and other surprises.
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse simply tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeted tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was gender-less) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue. Most of these strips in this volume have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago.
Customer Reviews:
Another brick in the wall.......2007-06-17
My comic-book store was a little tardy in getting this to me, not that it really matters when you're talking about a strip as well-aged as "Krazy Kat" was in the first place... Reading these colorful Sunday strips, you'd never guess that the world had been plunged into its worst war during this period. Herriman ultimately did slip a few off-hand references to WWII ("tank" bricks, etc.) into later 40s strips, but the brick-related schemes, alliteration, songs, and strange backgrounds during these dreadful 24 months are pretty much indistinguishable from those seen earlier in the 30s. Editor Bill Blackbeard provides his usual quota of half-insightful, half-doubtful "debafflers" - does he REALLY believe that Herriman's offhand use of the phone number "Coconino 69696" in one strip was a veiled reference to oral sex?? - and Jeet Heer contributes an interesting, albeit poorly proof-read, piece on Herriman's use of color. Essential reading for serious comics scholars.
The ménage à trois skips into the 1940s..........2007-04-23
Ever since that historic event on July 26th, 1910 wherein an unnamed mouse "beaned" an unnamed Kat in George Herriman's "The Dingbat Family," an unlikely unreconcilable love has gone unrequited. Somewhere between then and 1940 the Kat fell in love with the mouse. The mouse, with a slight touch of sadism perhaps, grew more and more to savor the tossing of bricks at the Kat's head. Little by little the Kat's non-verbal cartoon responses to these beanings turned from stars of pain into thick, pulsing hearts of love. An impossible love bloomed, a Krazy love. A love between natural enemies, a Kat and a mouse. This irrational and fundamentally flawed comic love came to resemble that often painful and soul-gorging love that vulnerable human beings can experience. The entire comic soon crytallized that nagging and irrational side of the human experience, that mosquito we can't slap, namely, the horrific fact that we sometimes fall hopelessly in love with that which hates us. With that which can never, and never will, return our pining love. But for some reason we cannot stop loving. We then begin to interpret and hope, foolishly, that specific acts the loved object perpetrates are in fact potential signs that reveal a hidden, perhaps unacknowledged, reciprocal love. In such fuzzy states, our wild human brains sometimes interpret insults and negligence as signs of hope. After all, when logic dissipates, abuse trumps indifference, doesn't it? The human condition can sometimes resemble a hammer to the knees. What's wrong with us?
"Krazy Kat," as a work of art, embraces and encapsulates this irrational love. We're not even sure, as longtime readers, whether Krazy is a boy or a girl. Regardless, Krazy continues to love Ignatz unconditionally. Ignatz's singular act of whacking Krazy with bricks metamorphizes into a singular act of love, or so it appears to Krazy's lovesick soul. Ignatz, with a parallel compulsion, loves hurling bricks at Krazy to the point of crazed addiction. Enter the third actor, Offissa Pupp, who patrols Coconino County in the eternal pursuit of sin. Some signs hint that Pupp has eyes for Krazy, so Ignatz's brick tossing arouses the highest contempt within his law-abiding by-the-book being. When caught, Ignatz lands in the ubiquitous jail. But Krazy sighs and romances about the love-brick that bounced off of his/her skull. The law comes inbetween an irrational love. Offissa Pupp thinks he's protecting Krazy from the beast Ignatz, when really he's preventing the one act that Krazy thirsts for day in and day out. Myopic, unknowing law, or, in more general terms, morality, stifles irrational pleasure. This tension never ceases, and it tugs and pulls at our humanity.
By 1940, George Herriman had developed this theme to a level that can only be described as poetry. Such depth of personal expression can unfortunately lead to public neglect, and the final years of Krazy Kat saw the comic's swift decline into obscurity. People don't often look to the comics page for insights into human nature. But in the case of "Krazy Kat" they should have. Unfortunately, the comic was so revolutionary that few probably sensed what was happening on those blanket-sized pages bursting with surreal color and shapes. Readers just wanted a few yuks. Not only that, fewer and fewer people had access to the comic as the 1940s emerged. Thus, at its peak, the comic vaporized from public view. Only Herriman's lifetime contract with Hearst kept it alive in less than a handful of newspapers.
Fantagraphics has also kept "Krazy Kat" alive by publishing this amazing series. Reproduced in full Krazy Kolor, the full impact of these strips explodes on the senses. The September 8th, 1940 strip provides one major highlight. It includes both the classic "zip... pow" centerpiece and the "Mus' be my 'eggo'" panel across the bottom of the main comic. Throughout the quality remains at the utmost. Ancillary characters also appear, most notably Mimi, the French poodle school teacher, who alters the love theme for a short spell.
"Krazy Kat" ended with Herriman's death in 1944. Fantagraphics thus has a mere two volumes to publish to complete a series that has never seen a full reprint. Early on, they also promised to return to the beginning and republish the Sunday panels from 1916 to 1924. These were previously published by Eclipse, but the series ended at 1924. If Fantagraphics succeeds in this endeavor, they will have provided a great service to those who can't get enough of one of the best comic strips ever to grace a newspaper. Roll on.
Book Description
Our second collection of full-color Krazy Kat comics!George Herriman integrated full spectacular color into Krazy Kat in June 1935. The gorgeous evolution continues in our second color volume, which includes the Sunday strips from all of 1937 and 1938. The color format opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard and designer Chris Ware's files.
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse simply tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeted tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was genderless) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue. Most of these strips in this volume have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago.
Customer Reviews:
Another blast from the past.......2007-04-08
Over the recent years, I have become a fan of "old-time" comic strips, those that were published in the first half of the 1900s. In that era, the newspaper comics were a far different medium than nowadays. While I am sure there are plenty of forgotten, forgettable strips from that era, on the whole, the comics were treated as a respectable part of the newspaper and in an age when cities often had several competing periodicals, a good comic strip could be a major selling point. Nowadays, the comics are almost an afterthought, scrunched up on some back page.
Among the material I have been reading has been Popeye, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley and Peanuts (this last, admittedly, a product of the 1950s and not the first half of the century). The one that kicked off my renewed interest in these oldie, however, was Krazy Kat. Krazy & Ignatz: Shifting Sands Dusts Its Cheeks in Powdered Beauty is the poetic title for the seventh volume of republished Sunday strips (all in kaptivating kolor!), this one covering 1937-1938.
If you have not read Krazy Kat, this book is as a good a place to start as any, as continuity is no issue. The three principals are the classic dog-cat-mouse triad, but don't expect Tom-and-Jerry-like antics. Ignatz Mouse loves to bean Krazy Kat in the head with a thrown brick. For Krazy, this brick-beaning is actually a sign of affection. Yes, Krazy loves Ignatz (his "l'il anjil"), and Officer Bull Pupp loves Krazy and hates Ignatz. The typical strip has Ignatz beaning Krazy and then getting run off to jail by Pupp.
Is Krazy male or female? Creator George Herriman tends to keep things ambiguous, but I've always viewed Krazy as the former, a feeling that is justified in the February 14, 1937 strip which Officer Pupp clearly refers to Krazy as male.
For those used to today's gag strips with a punch line in the final panel, Krazy Kat is a change-of-pace that may not appeal to everyone. While humorous, this comic strip relies more on the absurd, the surreal and the poetic. Even the constantly changing landscape of the Southwestern county of Coconino is almost as much of a character as Krazy, Ignatz and Pupp are.
If you think that comic strips like Marmaduke, Heathcliff and Family Circus are the pinnacle of the comics medium, then Krazy Kat is probably not going to be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you look at today's comics page with a certain lamentation of its fading overall quality, you may enjoy Krazy Kat which shows how wonderful the comics could truly be.
The Series Continues.......2007-01-04
This project of gathering, binding and offering the Sunday Krazy Kat comic strips is such a boon. It is a treat to be able to enjoy a strip that was gone before I was born. The art work, the humor, the perspective on life all go together so perfectly in Herriman's work that it would be a great loss to this generation not to have these books available. I look forward to the next volume when it arrives!
The Kat lives on..........2006-08-18
We are now, depending on method, between 1/3 & 1/2 way through the republication of Herriman's full-page comic spreads. There is plenty of good discussion of the artistic & literary value of this eccentric comic elsewhere, though perhaps not enough on the underlying philosophical issues it seems to raise, both in the push-&-pull of Kokonino Kounty's animal society, & in the recurrent surreal transformation of landscapes, an endless perceptual pun. But there is also immense & gentle, grace-filled hilarity of a sort we need no less now, than when Herriman was alive. Blessings on Fantagraphics for committing itself to this republication. Advice? Read it. Read them all - good food for the mind & the funnybone, not too common a combination...
"I am sitting here alone in my pretty cell of stone...".......2006-06-17
Has the Krazy Kat curse finally lifted? More than a few brave companies have tried to reprint entire runs of this highly acclaimed but very underprinted comic only to end up self destructing. Way back in the hoary old days of the 1990s a company called Eclipse printed all of the Sunday pages from 1916 to 1924. Then something happened. No 1925 volume ever appeared. The curse begins. Not long after, another company, Stinging Monkey, printed volume one of "the complete Krazy Kat Dailies". That bold venture only lasted one mere volume. The curse returns. The small Pacific Comics Company has actually released three entire volumes of Krazy Kat dailies with no sign of stopping, but their market reach remains quite diminutive. Enter Fantagraphics, a company that may finally lift this ignoble curse from one of the best comics ever produced. They exhumed the smoldering Eclipse series and began anew with the year 1925. So far seven volumes have appeared covering the years 1925 - 1938. The last two issues appearing in full color (just as the strip did in 1935). Only three potential volumes remain for the years 1939 - 1944. Fantagraphics now stands well poised to obliterate this vile printing curse forever.
This volume, like its predecessor, displays the Sunday pages in full color throughout. During these two years the strip began to take on an even more surrealistic and esoteric edge. The addition of color heightened the abstraction of Herriman's brilliant backgrounds. Folded moons, impossibly high cacti, and chunky mountains fill in nearly every gap (see the particularly stunning strip from September 12th, 1937). The adobe colored jail becomes a permanent home for Ignatz as it now appears on almost every page. And the incessant love triangle between a Kop, a Kat, and a Mouse kontinues unabated. Signs of the strip's maturity peek out from behind every frame. The humor becomes more subtle, relying less on wordplay and slapstick than earlier strips. The jokes don't reach out and grab like a cattle prod (unlike many of today's strips that thoroughly rub the joke in your face); some require re-reading or reflection. Or a large vocabulary. Regardless, many remain laugh out loud funny despite their age. The March 27, 1938 strip depicts Offica Pupp trying to arrest Ignatz because he misunderstood his verbal fulmination "DUCK!" Pupp examines a book entitled "Law" while murmuring "Maybe - MA-A-AYBE I can arrest him fot it - Let's-s-s-see." Also, Herriman's little cartoon asides begin to appear at the very end of this volume (starting with December 11th, 1938). These small frames appear incongruous but they actually complement the strip as a whole and alter the mood. They harken back to his early "Family Upstairs" strips. Unfortunatley, the strip paid dearly for its waxing maturity and subtlety with plummetting popularity. The 1930s and 1940s saw the inexorable commercial decline of Krazy Kat. It appeared in increasingly fewer papers as irritated editors tried to slash "old man Hearst's" favorite strip. This volume helps preserve Herriman's legacy to the comic form, and it proves once again that commerciality does not always equate with high quality.
Unlike all other Fantagraphics volumes so far, this one does not contain an introductory essay. Nonetheless, some amazing watercolors and photos bookend the strips, including a rare one of Herriman without a hat. And the tradition of the "Ignatz Mouse Debaffler Page" gets upheld.
With each successive volume it appears that Fantagraphics may be well on its way to completing this series. The quality has not waned an iota from the first issue. Impressive. Carry on, please.
Book Description
A unique collection of rare Krazy Kat in a handsome hardcover format.
For the past five years, Fantagraphics has been comprehensively publishing the complete Krazy Kat Sundays. Now we offer a unique, stand-alone companion to that series. The Kat Who Walked in Beauty collects many rare and unique dailies from the 1910s and 1920s. Though many readers are aware of Herriman's dynamic Sunday pages, fewer know that during 1920, in what must have been an editorially unrestrictive period for Herriman, he drew some of the most graphic and brilliantly conceived daily strips ever created; they look like "mini-Sunday" strips. This nine-month stretch of dailies, never-before-reprinted, is among the treasures included in this collection. The revolutionary layout and pictorial content of these strips ended in late-1920, but for a brief period in 1921, the expanded layouts resume and are included here. The collection includes many other Herriman gems, including the very first stand-alone Krazy & Ignatz strips from 1911, and the illustrations from Herriman's Krazy Kat Jazz pantomime / ballet, performed to captivated New York audiences in 1922.
Although Herriman's work is an American treasure, the Krazy Kat daily strip remains obscure even for the determined enthusiast. This book fills in several gaps in the daily strip history, reproduced at close to their original size.
Book Description
The bestselling series of the greatest comic strip of all goes full-color!
Starting with this sixth volume in Fantagraphics' acclaimed Krazy Kat reprint series, finally it's time for… color! After a brief hiatus in the mid-1930s, the heretofore black-and-white Sunday Krazy Kat returned in full spectacular color in June 1935. And so this volume includes all the Sunday strips from the latter half of 1935 and all of 1936, including one supremely rare instance of a page shot from an original syndicate proof sheet, all reproduced in sparkling, digitally cleaned-up color.
The new color format also opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard's files, including a surprising color self-portrait by Herriman, several Kat watercolors executed for friends, peers, and relatives, some watercolored non-Krazy Kat material, a reproduction of a vintage archy and mehitabel dust jacket by Herriman-plus a period spoof of Krazy Kat by Minute Movies' Ed Wheelan, and several instances of other cartoonists imitating Herriman's unique "Family Upstairs / Krazy Kat" format.
This volume also includes "The Kolor of Krazy Kat," a revelatory essay by journalist and critic Jeet Heer that addresses in-depth the mystery of Herriman's racial origins, and the varying ways in which Herriman dealt with them artistically throughout his career-a major addition to Herriman-related scholarship and commentary.
Customer Reviews:
The Golden Age has turned to dross!.......2007-01-10
Krazy and Ignatz are unique in the history of the comics and highlight the Golden Age when "Little Nemo," "Maggie and Jiggs," and "The Yellow Kid" were right up there with this strip, George Harriman's salute to wit, whimsy, and the English language. Did I mention Jewish and Italian dialects from New York City? Anyhow, language and imagination all worked together in a desert landscape with Turner skies above and some of the most marveous comic characters walking the sands below. Who else but Herriman could do a daily comic--for years--about a cat with a bow around its neck, a cat that was either male or female depending on what happened in the life of the reader that day, a cat in love with a mouse whose only aim in life was to bean the cat's head with a brick, then to be arrested by Officer Pup! It's the stuff that dreams are made of but, unfortunately, those dreams have faded away.
A Pillar of our Comics Heritage.......2006-12-23
It's probable that anyone considering the purchase of this book is already familiar with Krazy Kat, but just in case...
The entire strip is based on a love triangle, with a gender-ambiguous cat (Krazy) that is in love with a mouse (Ignatz) who is irritated by the cat and throws bricks at his/her/its noggin. The cat takes the bricks as a sign of love, however. A dog (Offisa Pupp) is in love with Krazy and tries to protect him-her-it from the mouse and the bricks, frequently jailing the mouse.
The strip has a fairly small cast of characters, mostly animal, and the goings on take place in front of ever-shifting landscapes. The effect is surreal: from one panel to the next, two characters could be talking without much change in their positions and posture, yet the background changes completely. The art is probably a love it or hate it proposition. It is scratchy and might resist some readers' esthetic sense. On the other hand, I know many people who automatically exclaim "I love Krazy Kat!" and the art is part and parcel of their appreciation. At any rate, the price of this full-color book is low enough to take a risk. Personally, I love the art: Herriman conveys surprise, movement, force and speed better than most or all of the comics masters, including Caniff, the superhero artists, Uderzo and possibly Hergé, with an apparent ease and simplicity of line.
Complementing the art is a patois (especially Krazy's) that is, at times, sheer poetry. The title of the book is drawn from an utterance within. There are deeper messages, such as the law of the excluded middle, or some gentle jabs at our lack of color blindness or cultural references that can slip by us because they are from an era now 70 years old.
There are two introductions. One of them, "The Kolors of Krazy Kat" on Herriman's complex ethnicity, is particularly apt in this, the book of the strip's first color Sundays. The other is by a fellow named Bill Blackbeard, whose efforts have saved portions of this and other strips from oblivion and in some cases from outright destruction. His work has rescued an important part of our cultural heritage.
In addition to the introductions, there are photographs as well as reproductions of beautiful Herriman water colors featuring his characters and backgrounds. The book was put together very conscientiously - even lovingly.
Incomparable and beautiful and gentle . . . ........2006-09-30
What can one say about Geo. Herriman's "Krazy Kat"? The wonderful, colorful world of Coconino County is captured beautifully in this all-color Fantagraphics collection of Sunday pages. Geo. was a true poet and his words and art join together (like Chinese calligraphy/poetry/painting) to create an self-contained universe of wonder, humor and all-too human foibles and desires. Let's see - Krazy (cat) loves Ignatz (mouse); Ignatz despises Krazy; Offissa Pupp (dog) loves Krazy but Krazy is unaware and Offissa Pupp's love is unrequited. It's all so krazily wonderful I really kan't deskribe it!!!
Krazy Kat: Kompletely in Kolor!.......2006-04-28
Many comic strips rely a lot on variations on a theme. The classic example would be Peanuts. There were dozens of Peanuts strips that involved Charlie Brown trying (and failing) to kick a ball that Lucy was holding. Even though the idea was the same in each, the execution differed from strip to strip. Years earlier, the same could have been said about Krazy Kat; how many different ways can a mouse attempt to hit a cat with a brick? As it turns out, many ways, each interesting in its own way.
For those unfamiliar with Krazy Kat, the three main characters in the strip are Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse and Officer Pupp. Krazy loves Ignatz, who in turn, dislikes Krazy. In fact, Ignatz is constantly beaning Krazy in the head with a brick, an act that Krazy interprets as one of affection. Meanwhile, Officer Pupp loves Krazy and hates Ignatz, constantly arresting the mouse for assault. (While Ignatz and Pupp are definitely male - Ignatz is even married with children - Krazy's gender is much more indeterminate, occasionally referred to as male, sometimes female, but usually left completely uncertain. Personally, I think of Krazy as male, but mainly so I am consistent in what pronoun to use.) Of course, just as not every Peanuts strip involved kicking a football, not every Krazy Kat strip involves Ignatz's efforts to obtain a brick and throwing it at Krazy, but usually the idea is at least lurking in the background.
What makes Krazy Kat special? It's hard to describe exactly. It is certainly different from any comic strip around nowadays: it has much less of an emphasis on punchline humor and instead relies on pure absurdity (or should I say "kraziness"). Even in its time, Krazy Kat was mainly successful due to the patronage of William Hearst, as well as the praise of such well-known figures as e.e. cummings and Walt Disney.
This particular volume covers the Sunday strips of the latter part of 1935 and all of 1936, the first period in which Krazy Kat was in color. Despite some obvious errors by the original publishers seventy years ago - such as times when Ignatz is blue or green - Krazy Kat works as well in color as in black-and-white. There are supplemental materials as well, most notably an essay on Krazy Kat's creator, George Herriman, the controversies regarding his racial background and how it was reflected in his work. Although interesting, you can skip this stuff if you want and go straight to the comics: Krazy Kat is kompletely kaptivating!
A 'must' for any KK fan.......2005-12-05
Krazy Ignatz is the sixth volume of the Krazy Kat reprint series - but it's the first volume to appear in full color, representing the comic strip's color appearance in June 1935 after being a black-and-white Sunday strip. The new color format has been digitally cleaned for sharp appearance - better than the original strips - and harvests a wealth of Krazy Kat and non-Kat materials from Herriman archives from 1935-36. Krazy Ignatz is a 'must' for any KK fan.
Average customer rating:
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Krazy Kat,
George Herriman
Manufacturer: H. Holt and Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
 General
| Drawing
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B0007E7KHA |
Book Description
In 1999, The Comics Journal—the most respected magazine about the artform of comics since the mid-1970s - named Krazy Kat the greatest example of the artform in the history of the medium.
In 1999, The Comics Journal named Krazy Kat the greatest example of the artform in the history of the medium.
"Krazy Kat has been the acknowledged greatest comic for so long, by so many esteemed critics, that it becomes tempting to knock it from its perch," wrote the editors of The Comics Journal in 1999. "At a casual glance, George Herriman's long-running strip seems quaint and antiquated. But to immerse yourself in Krazy Kat, to yield to Herriman's looping verbal rhythms and lovingly-depicted desert backgrounds, to experience his perfectly-realized triptych of unspoken and unconsummated love, yields a very, very different result. Herriman's creation is not only great comics, with a wonderful command of the medium's possibilities and strengths, but is also great art—an affecting exploration of some of life's most basic issues in a way that enlightens and thrills. Every cartoonist who turns to comics as a medium of personal expression follows in Herriman's path, and that is why his is the greatest comic of the 20th Century."
Fantagraphics is proud to re-present Krazy Kat to a new generation of readers, collecting what many consider to be Herriman's prime: all 104 full-page, B&W Sunday strips from 1925 and 1926 (Herriman did not incorporate color into the strip until 1935).
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationship of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse hated Krazy Kat, the expression of which was in throwing bricks at Krazy's head. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was genderless), mostly by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the other's true motivations. This simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth that led critics like Gilbert Seldes and e.e. cummings to recognize Herriman's genius almost immediately.
Krazy & Ignatz is designed by Chris Ware, creator of the wildly successful graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan (Pantheon Books, 2000).
Customer Reviews:
Happy Land between the pages........2007-09-04
Herriman finds his metier. Krazy waxes eloquent. Ignatz waxes his brick.
Offica Pup keeps the peace.
A must-read.......2007-01-11
If you are a fan of comics as an art-form, you should probably be familiar with Krazy & Ignatz. Thanks, Fantagraphics, for committing to these great collections.
Ballet In Pen And Ink........2005-08-15
I came upon Krazy Kat recently while doing research on early comic strips.My intent was to follow the older strips to see how they have progressed into what they are today.I was surprised to find that no modern strip adds anything to this early work of art or comes close to being its' equal.There has been much praise over the years for George Herrimans' work and if I can add one thing I would say get all these titles you can.This was as good as it will ever get.
To everyone who claims comics are just for children..........2004-09-13
I'm absolutely blown away every time I pick up this book. I'd heard it referred to by everyone from Max Speigelman to Bill Watterson himself, artist of Calvin & Hobbes, but hadn't ever seen it, being born a number of decades after it had left the papers. I decided to pick it up, since as an aspiring comic artist, I figured it'd be a good idea to take a look at something credited by Bill Watterson.
The comics are absolutely amazing. The art is playful, sometimes delicate, sometimes bold, but masterfully executed and always artistic, a quality so often missing from modern comics. And the text is just as amazing - it always strikes me as poetry in word bubbles. Anyone and everyone who enjoys art, poetry, comics, or humor owes it to themselves to pick up at least one of these volumes.
Yes.......2003-06-24
Every man, woman, and child should own a complete set of George Herriman's Krazy Kat, but that's currently impossible cos so much of it is out of print (or has never been reprinted). Thanks for getting this thing started again, Fantagraphics, and hopefully you'll get the financial support to see this thing through.
If you know nothing of Krazy and Ignatz, I can only invite you to slide into their surreal world. Words won't do it justice. Krazy is yin, Ignatz is yang. You figure it out.
Book Description
The multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards series collecting one of America's true national treasures, Krazy Kat.
This is the fifth in a series reprinting George Herriman's early 20th Century comic strip masterpiece. Most of these strips have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago. Each volume is edited by the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum's Bill Blackbeard. Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934 will be a hot-baked brickbat of a volume, adance with nearly two full years of the Sunday Krazy Kat (Herriman did not use color until 1935), snug between multiple pages of Herriman extras, not the least of which include an introduction by Blackbeard, a new "Debaffler" page, and a stunning layout front and back and throughout by the inimitable Chris Ware!
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse just tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeting tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was gender-less) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue.
Customer Reviews:
Kaveat..........2006-02-11
I have nothing to add to the praise for Herriman's marvelous creation, which you can read about in the comments below. Anything I'd say to that effect would only echo what has already been written.
Alas, the 1933-1934 volume in the Fantagraphics release has some problems. It has nothing to do with a dropoff in the humor of the strip itself -- there was none, as "Krazy Kat" never experienced a noticeable decline in quality -- but with the print quality of the Sunday strips as they are presented here. Although I'm sure Fantagraphics did their best when they went through page after page of ancient newsprint drawn from who knows how many private collections to find the best possible specimens, the sad fact is that the majority of strips reprinted in this collection are blurry and shaky. This makes it very difficult to fully appreciate Herriman's skills with pen and brush, and worst of all, makes the subtle facial expressions and body language of the characters much harder to interpret. A small handful of pages, with sharp outlines and shadings, stand in contrast to the rest.
By all means, you should become acquainted with this wonderful comic strip if you aren't already. But you'd do much better to get the next volume in the series, A Wild Warmth Of Chromatic Gravy. Along with featuring the return of sharp, clear lines, "Gravy" is in full, vibrant color (pre-1935 Sunday strips were all black-and-white) and even includes an insert that features newly unearthed, better-quality scans of a few of this volume's worst offenders. This volume is strictly for Kat kompletists.
George Herriman, Comic Genius........2005-08-23
The Fantagraphic series of Krazy Kat reprints is a fantastic journey back in time.The strange thing is that it could have been written yesterday.Anyone remotely interested in comic strips or cartoons needs to get as many of these volumes as possible.Krazy Kat came to life in his own strip in 1913.The same year Charles Chaplin made his first silent film.As a student of the Chaplin films,the first thing that came to mind was how Herrimans' comic strip reminds you of the work Chaplin did.This was not intentional I'm sure.They were geniuses of their time and in fact,of all time.
Fantagraphics closes the gap.......2005-08-23
George Herriman created Krazy Kat as a "downstairs" strip to his The Family Upstairs. The devine Kat soon had a strip of his/her own, both daily and Sunday.
Hyperion press published the Family Upstairs strips from 1910 - 1911. Eclipse published the early black and white Sunday strips, 1916 - 1924, in volumes which also included the full color Saturday strips from 1922. Now Fantagraphics has published the rest of the black and white Sundays, 1925 - 1934, closing the gap between the last Eclipse book and the first full color Kitchen Sink book, which begins with the 1935 color Sundays.
The daily Krazy Kat strips are much harder to find. Pacific Comics Club has published (almost) complete years 1921 - 1923. Comics Revue monthly has published the dailies beginning in 1931 (currently they are finishing 1933). The Menomonee Falls Gazette published more than half of 1934 and 1935.
Krazy Kat ended when George Herriman died in 1944.
The heppy lend gets closa an closa..........2005-01-05
Well, here we go again. Another sumptuous collection of one of the best comic strips ever published. Fantagraphics has more than fulfilled its pledge to keep the series going with this the 5th volume of Krazy Kat Sunday strips.
This installment, like all previous installments, has amazing bonus material. The first thirty pages include articles about Herriman and Krazy Kat, early pre-Kat Herriman strips (including "Baron Bean", "Mary's Home From College", "The Amours of Marie Anne MacGee", and "Embarassing Moments"), as well as some rarely seen Krazy Kat dailies. Also, the series editor announces that the next volume will be the first KOLOR KRAZY KAT edition. After 1934, the Kat et al appeared in amazing Kolor. So here stand bound the final black and white Krazy Kat Sunday pages.
And as always the book plumps with the justifiably famous Krazy Kat Sunday strips. Some of the strips had to be painstakingly reconstructed from papers that shrunk Herriman's original sized papers to miniscule proportions. All of the reconstructions are listed in the back of the book. Fantagraphics pulled this feat off with much gusto, as anyone can witness in the book.
For the initiates amongst us, the strip's main theme is love. Krazy, a Kat with indeterminate gender, loves Ignatz, a temperamental mouse. The only sign of affection Krazy can extract from Ignatz is a brick solidly and violently tossed at his skull. So, brick equals love to Krazy. Meanwhile, Offisa Pupp loves Krazy (in a rather repressed manner) and has made his mission in life to halt Ignatz's vile tossings. The entire strip revolves around this variation on a theme. Helplessness and hope in the face of seemingly hopeless love seeps out between the ink marks. Isn't it romantic?
Lastly, February 19th, 1933 has to be amongst Herriman's best "silent" strips. Krazy and Offisa Pupp ride a see-saw and Ignatz repeatedly picks up the brick, drops it, picks it up, etc... Be sure to translate the español on the wall separating the parties.
Carry on, Fantagraphics, carry on...
Book Description
"[A] long-overdue, definitive opus on that fabulous feline of American surrealism."-Richard Merkin, Vanity Fair
Krazy Kat, created by George Herriman, made its debut in 1913. During its 31-year run, it was enormously popular with the public and with many writers, artists, and intellectuals of the time. Herriman's stories of the Kat and his tormentor, Ignatz Mouse, were both playful and philosophical. This book is the most comprehensive survey of the innovative cartoon masterpiece and the first major biographical work on the artist himself. Illustrated with more than 150 of Herriman's comic strips as well as never-before-published drawings, archival photographs, and personal letters, this book is a testament to the brilliance of his work. AUTHOR BIO: Patrick McDonnell is the creator of the comic strip Mutts and author of Abrams' Mutts: The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell. He and his wife, Karen O'Connell, are scholars and collectors of early comic-strip art. Georgia Riley de Havenon works with the Graham Gallery in New York, where many of the original Krazy Kat drawings have been exhibited.
Customer Reviews:
Wow! Beautiful book.......2006-08-24
This is a wonderful book for Krazy Katz fans to own. It is large, colorful and very informative on one of Americas great cartoonists. The delivery through Amazon was fast and effortless. The book, a treasure to own. Worth the lower price through Amazon.
The Kraziest love triangle ever.......2005-08-19
This is a wonderful introduction to George Herriman's great comic strip Krazy Kat that ran for several decades in the early twentieth century. This introduction provides biographical background to Herriman's art, a survey of some of his influences, and a very healthy dose of Krazy Kat panels, both color and black & white. It also discusses the way that Krazy Kat became a cultural phenomenon, easily one of the most highly regarded comics of the century, and permeating many other arts as well.
The Krazy Kat strip is utterly insane, surreal stuff. Here is the premise: Krazy Kat (who is usually female but is sometimes apparently male) is in love with Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz loathes Krazy, and to prove it konstantly kreases that kat's krown with a brick. Incredibly, Krazy sees this as proof of Ignatz's affection, and falls even more deeply in love (many panels show hearts rising from Krazy's heart when she is hit by one of Ignatz's bricks). Officer Pup, the town constable, is in love with Krazy and frequently throws Ignatz into jail for hitting Krazy, which causes Krazy to pine for her would-be lover. This is merely the barest sketch of this weird and wild world. The town of Concocino is populated by a host of equally outrageous characters, though the focus continually comes back to the three principals.
Though even the most recent of these strips are over sixty years old, Krazy Kat has stood up magnificently over the years. Part of the reason surely lies with Herriman's enormous gifts as an illustrator. The Sunday strips in particular are things of great beauty, with the frames arcing around the page in spectacular designs of considerable innovation and complexity. The content of the comics reflects a genuine wit and substantial intelligence, while the bizarre love triangle possesses endless possibilities for both humor and pathos. This truly is one of the most unique comics in the history of the medium, and even those who do not usually respond to the genre are apt to find this enormously entertaining.
Interested in Krazy Kat? Start here..........2005-08-14
This book stands as the best introduction to one of the best comic strips ever produced. Not only is it packed with hard to find "Krazy Kat" strips, but it also includes a biography of the artist, George Herriman. Some consider Herriman the first African-American mainstream cartoonist. His colleagues didn't know his ethnicity (and Herriman didn't tell them) so some called him "the Greek". He felt he had to hide some of his features from the public. For example, he kept his very curly hair closely cut and hidden under a hat. Not only that, his birth certificate shows his parent's ethnicity as "colored". The prejudices of the time likely would not have allowed an African-American the mainstream status and freedom allowed to George Herriman. So through "Krazy Kat" we get a glimpse of what early 20th century American culture may have missed out on due to its racial myopia. For "Krazy Kat" stands as an absolute masterpiece of its genre.
Herriman found some modicum of fame in his lifetime. William Randolph Hearst (the newspaper magnate) loved Herriman's work and rewarded him with a lifetime contract (according to the biography in the book, Hearst once read a "Krazy Kat" Sunday page and immediately demanded a raise for the artist). Herriman's success didn't come quickly, however. His first big break came in 1897 with the sale of a sketch to the Los Angeles Herald. Around 1901 he landed his first job as a "Staff Cartoonist" (a person who literally reported to the office every day and rattled off strip after strip; very different from today's cartoonists). Between 1901 and 1916 Herriman penned numerous strips (the book includes samples of many of these strips - many in color), including: "Musical Mose" (this strip's overt racial humor would not fly today), "Professor Otto and His Auto", "Acrobatic Archie", "Two Jolly Jackies", "Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade", "Home Sweet Home", "Baron Mooch", "Mary's Home From College", "Gooseberry Sprig" (considered to be a direct forerunner to "Krazy Kat"), "Alexander the Cat", "Daniel and Pansy", and finally, in 1910, "The Dingbat Family" (which changed its name briefly to "The Family Upstairs"; it was Herriman's first hit). It was in a "Dingbat Family" strip in 1910 that a mouse first "beaned" a "Kat" with a projectile (in the "running boards" of the strip). Eventually the Kat and mouse sideshow surpassed the main strip's popularity, and "Krazy Kat" debuted as a daily in October 1913 (the famous Sunday pages began in 1916). Herriman kept experimenting with other strips through 1923 when he finally placed his focus squarely on "Krazy Kat".
From roughly 1913 to 1944 (when Herriman passed away leaving a week's worth of unfinished Krazy Kat's on his drawing table) "Krazy Kat" developed from a "Kat" and mouse game (filled with puns, misunderstandings, and musings on the imperfections of language) into a complex love triangle between Krazy (the "Kat"), Ignatz (the mouse) and Offisa Pupp (the dog). Ignatz's entire being revolves around "beaning" the "Kat" with a brick, and Krazy interprets this as an act of love (unbeknownst to Ignatz). Offisa Pupp loves Krazy (in a fatherly sort of way) and his obsession revolves around catching Ignatz in the act and jailing him. Three obsessions collide in an almost jazz-style derivation of themes. Herriman developed this theme brilliantly over 30 years of strips. But overall it defies analysis: the strip can only speak for itself.
Sadly, though "Krazy Kat" counted such dignatiries as e.e. cummings, George Gershwin, Gilbert Seldes, James Joyce, and other literati, as fans, its popularity waned dramatically throughout the 1930s (as it became more surreal, esoteric and unabashedly uncommercial). It was kept in print by Hearst himself. The book does not cover the frustration of Hearst editors at the inclusion of the strip in their papers. They rebelled against it in some cases. Many simply tried to remove it from circulation only to find Hearst himself yelling "keep it in!" So we have, of all people, the controversial William Randolph Hearst to thank for the continuation of "Krazy Kat". By the end of its run "Krazy Kat" only appeared in some 30 papers.
The main focus of this book lies in its numerous incredible strips. The book includes daily strips (most dating from 1938 to 1944) and Sunday pages (dating from 1916 to 1944 with some in color; it also includes both the first and last Sunday pages). If one reason exists to purchase this book, here it is. The strips retain their amazing character even after decades of aging. And the artwork remains astounding. Not only that, the book includes samples of hand colored drawings of Herriman's, and photos of Herriman and his family. All in all, this book opens the door on one of the comic strip medium's most celebrated strips. Those that get hooked should continue thier obsessions (in the true spirit of Krazy, Ignatz, and Offisa Pupp) with the Fantagraphics' series of Sunday pages, and the Pacific Comics club's reprints of daily strips. Someday every Krazy Kat strip Herriman drew will finally appear in printed form. We can hope, at least.
The greatest comic strip ever? You bet........2003-12-27
When I noticed that many of my favourite cartoonists have said that Herriman's 'Krazy Kat' is the greatest comic strip ever, I decided I should check it out. It didn't take long before I agreed with them.
George Herriman is one of those rare individuals who genuinely deserves to be called a genius. That's a word that gets thrown around a little too casually perhaps, but in Herriman's case it is almost an understatement.
He was a brilliantly inventive artist, but his writing is what really sets him apart. A lot of the dialogue is written phonetically in bizarre dialects, a tricky thing to do, but he uses it to great effect.
Whereas space restrictions force cartoonists today to avoid using more words than is necessary, Herriman would often use a lot more, and much of the pleasure of reading 'Krazy Kat' comes from the sheer virtuosity with which Herriman uses language.
That a comic strip could be as funny, as intellectually stimulating, and as beautiful to look at as 'Krazy Kat' seems to me to be some kind of miracle. This book is a great introduction to Herriman and his work. There's a generous helping of 'Krazy Kat' strips, as well as some of Herriman's other work. Anyone who loves comics should have it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Pop art...pop life, the beginning of the 20th cent. is Krazy.......2003-06-03
This is what all popular art forms should be. A social commentary as love poem. And poem this is. There is very little that someone can write about the Krazy experience without treading in the same terran as this wonderful book. This is were your Krazy love afair begins. And unlike Ignatz you don't show your love with a brick.
Book Description
Fantagraphics's latest volume collecting one of America's true national treasures, Krazy Kat. In 2002, Fantagraphics embarked on a publishing plan to reintroduce the greatest strip of the first-half of the 20th Century (the Peanuts of its era) to a public that has largely never seen it: this volume is the fourth in a long-term plan to chronologically reprint strips from the prime of Herriman's career, most of which have not seen print since originally running in newspapers 75 years ago. Each volume is edited by the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum's Bill Blackbeard, the world's foremost authority on early 20th Century American comic strips, and designed by Jimmy Corrigan author Chris Ware, who may well go down as the best cartoonist of the 21st Century.
Krazy & Ignatz 1931-1932 will be a hot-baked brickbat of a volume, adance with nearly two full years of the Sunday Krazy Kat (Herriman did not use color until 1935), snug between multiple pages of Herriman extras, including two premiere appearances of Krazy from 1909, never before reprinted; a sports page panorama of graphic fun with the French boxing champion, Georges Carpentier; two extremely frank daily strip revelations about Krazy's dubious gender; several gag cartoons from the early days of the last century; vignettes of the Coconino Kast of Kharacters drawn for Kat fans; and a first-time-ever reprint of Gilbert Seldes' second article on Krazy, written in 1935 for Esquire, two decades after his seminal piece in The Seven Lively Arts, with komments by Bill Blackbeard; plus an introduction by Blackbeard detailing the miraculous recovery of many of the Sunday pages in this volume from apparent newspaper oblivion, a new Debaffler page, and a stunning layout front and back and throughout by the inimitable Chris Ware!
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse just tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeting tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was gender-less) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue.
Customer Reviews:
But the strips were in black and white..........2005-06-28
Not to nitpick too much, but Herriman didn't use color in his Sundays until (I believe) 1935. The comics are reprinted here smaller than the original full-page size; to reprint the comics that large would require an oversized folio that would cost many times as much and not fit on most shelves. Not that it wouldn't be neat.
Poorly reproduced, a disservice.......2005-06-21
Produced entirely in black & white, and with very small images. The original was in color & about twice the size. There is really nothing to hold your interest, visually. This will turn people off to Krazy Kat. I sent my copy back.
"How stipendous is the possibility of a egg".......2004-05-28
Fantagraphics delivers again. The greatest comic ever published is getting its due thanks to this series (taken over from the now defunct Eclipse series). Once again the book is crammed with great Krazy Kat full page strips (keeping in step with the series previous three volumes). Comics were at one time far more complex, as a simple head poke into this book will reveal. These aren't your average four panel "I hate Mondays" gag strips. These involve reading, not glancing. Herriman was a master at his trade, and dialects, puns, non-sequiturs, nonsense, changing backgrounds, slapstick, and poignancy pervade every page. There's nothing like this on the incredibly shrinking comics page of today.
If you've never read Krazy Kat, here's some background: Krazy is a Kat (yes, with a "K", that's very important); Ignatz is a mouse; Offica Pupp is a dog (who also happens to be a cop). These three folks live in Cocino County, where Ignatz fulfills his greatest desire of flinging bricks at Krazy Kat's head. It's not so simple as "BANG!! HAHAHA!" Krazy LOVES Ignatz (pines for him) and since Ignatz only showers attention on Krazy in the form of a brick, Krazy has come to interpret this as an act of love. If you see a little heart rising from Krazy's head after Ignatz "beans" Krazy's head, this is why. Three is of course more fun, and Offica Pupp makes the triangle complete. Offisa Pupp has something for Krazy (though it's not as obvious as the other trist). Consequently, Offisa Pupp detests Ignatz for throwing bricks at Krazy. Ignatz is often seen being dragged off to jail protesting his innocence while Krazy rhapsodizes about his "'lil dahlink!" If this doesn't sound like good reading to you, then you obviously haven't read the strip. Give it at least a few chances; it takes some time to sink in. It's easier to experience than to explain. You can't read this strip vicariously.
This installment has an amazing bonus - a boatload of Krazy Kat daily strips from 1931. Previous volumes have included interesting miscellany from the past (pictures of an Ignatz figure, or piano music for the "Krazy Kat" rag), but this is almost too much to ask for. Krazy Kat dailies are harder to find in print than the Sunday pages (will Fantagraphics take on the daily strips when they're through with the Sundays?), so this is a welcome bonus. And the book is HUGE! The strips are very readable, and the dailies are VERY readable. Also included is an article about George Herriman's early cartoon career, along with some of his earliest strips from 1909-1910 (Baron Mooch and Gooseberry Sprig). There are some fascinating facts here: Charles Dickens considered art to be an integral part of his novels (wouldn't know that today!), and Cocino County was actually created for an early strip of Herriman's, not for Krazy Kat.
May Fantagraphics march on and chronicle all that there is to chronicle of Krazy Kat. Fans of "both high art and low culture" (taken from a review on the back of the book) appreciate it to an infinity squared degree.
Customer Reviews:
A Great kollection of Krazy Komics.......2003-11-26
Krazy Kat was never popular; it is probably the most under-appreciated influential comic strip of all time. Artists in other genres, not just comic strips, cite it as an inspiration.
Because Krazy Kat had such a limited appeal, both then and now, reprints have been few and far between, taken up by small publishers who know that sales are going to be slow and small. Modern reprints began in 1990 with Eclipse/Turtle Island's collections of Sundays, one volume for each year. They managed to print the first decade of the strip before folding. In 2002 Fantagraphics picked up where Eclipse left off, and has been publishing reprints in two-year volumes. As I write this (Dec 2003), they are up to 1930.
During the gap between Eclipse's demise and Fantagraphics's release, Kitchen Sink Press tried their own series of Sunday reprints--also in a two-year format. But they began in 1935 when the Sunday strip began running in color. They planned for seven volumes, which would take the strip through the end of its run in 1944. Volume 1 got mass distribution. Volume 2 got a very limited run and is very hard to find. Volume 3 has an Amazon listing but I do not know if it really exists, or in what numbers.
As an edition, the Komplete Kolor Krazy Kat, Volume 1 is nearly everything one would hope for. The size is large enough to make the comics reproduce well. The colors look lively. I think the strip was reproduced better here than it was in The Smithsonian Book of Comics.
Plus there are a couple of extras--introductions by both Bill Watterson (who drew "Calvin & Hobbes") and Bill Blackbeard. Both offer insights and comments that are worth reading. Hopefully Fantagraphics will reprint these as well if and when they catch up with their own releases.
All in all, a great find if you like Krazy Kat.
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Krazy & Ignatz 1937-1938: "Shifting Sands Dusts its Cheeks in Powdered Beauty" (Krazy Kat) (Krazy and Ignatz)
Krazy & Ignatz 1935-1936: "A Wild Warmth of Chromatic Gravy" (Krazy Kat)
Krazy & Ignatz: The Kat Who Walked in Beauty (Fantagraphics)
Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934: "Necromancy by the Blue Bean Bush" (Krazy Kat)
Krazy & Ignatz 1941-1942: "A Ragout of Raspberries" (Krazy and Ignatz)
