George Herriman

George Herriman
Herriman (center) and fans
Born	George Joseph Herriman (1880-08-22)August 22, 1880 New Orleans, Louisiana
Died	April 25, 1944(1944-04-25) (aged 63) Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Cartoonist
Notable works	Krazy Kat
Signature

George Joseph Herriman (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist, best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–1944). More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among people in the arts. Gilbert Seldes' article "The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself" was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serous attention to a comic strip. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to mulatto Creole parents, Herriman grew up in Los Angeles. After he graduated from high school in 1897, he got his first job in newspapers, doing illustrations and engraving. He soon moved on to cartooning and comic strips—a medium then in its infancy. He did a variety of strips until he introduced his most famous character, Krazy Kat, in his strip The Dingbat Family in 1910. A Krazy Kat daily strip began in 1913 and from 1916 also appeared on Sundays. The strip was noted for its poetic, dialect-heavy dialog, its fantastic, shifting backgrounds and its bold, experimental page layouts. In its main motif, Ignatz Mouse would pelt Krazy with bricks, which the naïve, androgynous Kat would interpret as symbols of love. As the strip progressed, a love triangle between Krazy, Ignatz and Offisa Pupp became pronounced.

Herriman lived most of his life in Los Angeles, but made frequent trips to the Navajo deserts in the southwestern U.S. He was drawn to the landscapes of Monument Valley and the Enchanted Mesa and made Coconino County the location of his Krazy Kat strips. His artwork made much use of Navajo and Mexican themes and motifs against shifting desert backgrounds. He was a prolific cartoonist who produced a large number of strips and illustrated Don Marquis's books of poetry about Archy and Mehitabel, an alley cat and a cockroach. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was a proponent of Herriman and gave him a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate. This guaranteed Herriman a comfortable living and an outlet for his work, despite its lack of popularity. Upon his 1944 death, a week's worth of Krazy Kat strips lay unfinished on the drawing table in his Hollywood home. His work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Charles Schulz, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Bill Watterson, Patrick McDonnell and Chris Ware.

Personal history

Early life

The Herrimans attended St. Augustine Catholic Church in Tremé in New Orleans.

George Joseph Herriman came from a line of French-speaking Louisiana Creole mulattoes, who were considered free people of color and were reportedly active in the early abolitionist movement. His paternal grandfather, George Herriman Sr., owned a tailor shop on Royal Street in New Orleans. His maternal grandmother was born in Havana, Cuba. The family attended the St. Augustine Catholic Church in New Orleans' Tremé neighborhood.

Herriman was born on August 22, 1880 at 348 Villere Street in New Orleans. His father, George Herriman, Jr., was 30 at the time and his mother, Clara Morel Herriman, was 25. His birth certificate lists Herriman as "colored". When he was ten, the family moved to Los Angeles, where he grew up south of downtown near Main Street and Washington Boulevard. His father worked there as a tailor and for a time as a baker. Herriman went to the Catholic boys' school St. Vincent's Academy. He worked as a barber and later a baker, with his father while in school, though he pined for the opportunity to make art. He graduated in 1897 and soon sold a sketch of Santa Paula's Hotel Petrolia to the Los Angeles Herald. This landed him a $2-per-hour job there as an assistant in the engraving department, where he occasionally had the chance to do drawings for advertisements and political cartoons.

Early career in New York (1900–1904)

George and Mabel Herriman on their wedding day (July 7, 1902)

When he was twenty, Herriman sneaked aboard a freight train bound for New York City. He hoped his chances would be better there, in the seat of the nation's publishing industry. He had hard luck at first and got by with odd jobs such as barker and billboard painter at Coney Island, until one of the leading humor magazines of the day, Judge, accepted some of his cartoons. Between June 15 and October 26, 1901, eleven of his cartoons appeared in that magazine's pages, in the heavily crosshatched style of the day. He frequently made use of sequential images in his cartoons, in a way akin to the emerging comic strip medium. On September 29 that year, he had his first real comic strips published. One was in the Pulitzer chain of newspapers, on a non-contractual, one-shot basis; another was on a continuing basis in the Philadelphia North American Syndicate's first comic strip supplement. He had his first color comic strips appear for the T. C. McClure Syndicate beginning October 20.

The success Herriman had with these syndicated strips convinced him to give up on magazine submissions. He began his first strip with a continuing character, Musical Mose, for the Pulitzer papers on February 16, 1902. It starred an African-American musician who impersonated other ethnicities, only to suffer the consequences when discovered by his audience. Professor Otto and his Auto, about a terrifyingly dangerous driver, followed in March. Acrobatic Archie, a "kid strip" with a child protagonist, first appeared in April. With his future as a cartoonist seemingly assured, Herriman bought a train ticket back to Los Angeles to marry his childhood sweetheart and brought her back with him to New York.

Herriman made an appearance in the literary magazine The Bookman's November issue, an honor only the top cartoonists had achieved. He wrote of his profession self-deprecatingly, while poet La Touche Hancock, in an article in that issue titled "The American Comic and Caricature Art", commented, "Art and poetry is the characteristic of George Herriman. Were his drawings not so well known one would think he had mistaken his vocation." His work was increasing in popularity and he occasionally had front-page, full-color strips for the Pulitzer supplements, such as Two Jolly Jackies, about two unemployed sailors, which began in January 1903. He began doing the cowboy strip Lariat Pete in September for the McClure syndicate after Two Jolly Jackies came to an end.

The comic strip Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade (1904–1906) was an early success for Herriman. (April 21, 1906)

In June, he finally managed to get a newspaper staff position, on the New York World. He provided illustrations to Roy McCardell's commentaries on local events, beginning June 28 and running to the year's end. Herriman still produced syndicate work as well, such as Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade for the World Color Printing Company beginning January 2, 1904. Another of Herriman's obsessive characters, the Major traveled the world in an unsuccessful search for the purest air, spouting poetic dialogue along the way. Major Ozone was so popular that it soon was given the supplement's front page. The same January, Herriman moved from the World to the New York Daily News, where he was given a larger quantity and variety of work, including cartoon reporting on sports and politics. Herriman had a short-lived continuing character comic strip in February and March about domestic life called Home Sweet Home and that spring began illustrating a series of articles written by Walter Murphy called Bubblespikers.

Rudolph Block hired Herriman for the Hearst papers with "a salary commensurate with his talents", starting April 22 at the New York American. The American ran no daily comic strips at the time. Herriman drew sports cartoons in an office alongside Frederick Burr Opper and James Swinnerton, as well as Tad Dorgan (popularly known as "Tad"), who was a star at another Hearst paper, the New York Evening Journal. Tad and Herriman would often be assigned to cover the same sporting events, and became close friends. In 1924, Tad called Herriman "one of the best sporting artists in the world" and regretted that Herriman no longer did that kind of work. Herriman continued with Hearst until June 1905, when he left the paper, possibly due to the new sports editor's unsympathetic attitude to cartoonists. He returned to Los Angeles sometime in the latter half of 1905.

Return to California (1906–1910)

Daniel and Pansy, Herriman's first animal strip (December 4, 1909)

In California, Herriman continued to mail in work to the World Color Printing Company. He revived Major Ozone and also did Grandma's Girl—Likewise Bud Smith (combined from two earlier strips) and a two-tiered children's strip, Rosy Posy—Mama's Girl. He began to work with the Los Angeles Times on January 8, 1906 before being taken back into the Hearst fold that summer. Accompanying a front-page illustration in Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner, Herriman was announced as "the Examiner's cartoonist" on August 21. His artwork began to appear on nearly every page, resulting in greatly increased sales. In October, he stopped doing work for World Color.

Coming off the success of Bud Fisher's daily A. Mutt in late 1907, Herriman began a similarly sports-themed daily strip, Mr. Proones the Plumber, in December 1907. The strip did not enjoy the same success, though and ceased to appear after December 26. His next attempt at a comic strip came in 1909, when he introduced the freeloader Baron Mooch in October. Herriman began two more strips in November 1909 with the World Color Printing Company. Both Alexander the Cat and Daniel and Pansy appeared in color. Daniel and Pansy was Herriman's first strip to feature an all-animal cast. This was followed in the Examiner on December 20 by the short-lived Mary's Home from College, a precursor to the "girl strips" such as Cliff Sterrett's Polly and Her Pals and John Held Jr.'s Merely Margie; and on December 23 with Gooseberry Sprig, about a cigar-smoking "Duck Duke", a character who had previously and popularly, appeared in Herriman's sports cartoons. The bird-populated fantasy was an imaginative precursor to Krazy Kat and many of the characters would reappear in the later strip.

New York again and Krazy Kat (1910–1922)

Krazy Kat daily strip (December 24, 1917)

The cartoon staff at the New York Evening Journal (January 3, 1911)
Top, from left: Gus Mager, Charles Wellington, Herriman
Bottom, from left: Harry Hershfield, Ike Anderson, Tad Dorgan

The sports editor of the New York Evening Journal called Herriman back to New York to cover for Tad while the latter was in San Francisco covering the "Fight of the Century" between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries in 1910. Six days after getting to New York, Herriman began The Dingbat Family, starring E. Pluribus Dingbat and his family. Herriman used typed lettering on The Dingbat Family on July 26, 1910, but quickly went back to hand-lettering. The strip was not particularly inspired, but it provided the vehicle for a fruitful situation: on July 26, the family "Kat" was hit on the head with a brick by a mouse. From then, the antics of this mouse and "Kat" would continue in the bottom portion of The Dingbat Family. Herriman admitted he had done this "to fill up the waste space". About a month after the first "bricking", the "Kat" appeared creeping up on the sleeping mouse and laid a loud kiss on him. The mouse woke up, saying, "I dreamed an angel kissed me", while the "Kat" crept away, saying, "Sweet thing".

The gender of the "Kat" was unclear from the start. Herriman played with settling on one or the other, but in the end he would refer to the "Kat" as either "he" or "she" when he would see fit. As would become a signature of the later Krazy Kat strip, Herriman worked in strange details into the mini-strip's backgrounds—cacti, pagodas, fanciful vegetation, or anything else that struck his fancy. The cast grew and soon included mainstays such as Bull Pupp, as well as characters from the Gooseberry Sprigg strip. The strip's characters, relations and situations grew organically and undeliberately as the strip went on, encouraged by Herriman's officemates.

Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse (September 7, 1918)

The main situation of The Dingbat Family had changed as well. A family had moved into the apartment above the Dingbat's at the "Sooptareen Arms". The antics of the mysterious upstairs family became the central theme of the strip and on August 1, it was retitled The Family Upstairs. Mr. Dingbat was unsuccessful in either getting a peek at his neighbors, or getting them evicted for their obnoxious noisiness. He hired detectives, cowboys, wrestlers, bagpipers, famous stars and cartoon characters to get to the bottom of, or scare away, these neighbors, but to no avail. On November 15, 1911, the obsession came to nothing when the building the Dingbats lived in was demolished to make way for a department store. The family then moved to Yorba Linda and the strip reverted to domestic tales. The cat-and-mouse substrip was gaining in popularity and instead of filling up space in the bottom of the Dingbat's panels, it began to take a tier of panels of its own. For a short while in July 1912, while the Dingbats were "on vacation", Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse took over the strip, which was retitled for this time Krazy Kat and I. Mouse. On October 28, 1913, Krazy Kat made its debut as an independent, vertical strip on the daily comics page.

Krazy Kat's humor changed over the first few years from straight-up slapstick to a more vaudevillean kind. The shifting backgrounds became more and more bizarre, presaging things to come. The strip expanded to full-page, black-and-white Sundays on April 23, 1916 (actually a Saturday). Herriman made full use of his imagination and the page in the way he broke it down. The strips were unlike anything else on the comics page, spontaneous, formally daring, yet impeccably composed.

At some point, Herriman made a trip to Monument Valley in Arizona and similar places in New Mexico and southern Utah. The impressive forms of the desert landscape soon made their way into Herriman's strips. The Enchanted Mesa of New Mexico first appeared in Krazy Kat in the summer of 1916. Herriman may have first been there after reading an article by Theodore Roosevelt in 1913, but he may have gone earlier—the desert Coconino County, Arizona, that became the backdrop to Krazy Kat was first mentioned in a 1911 Dingbat Family strip, though the real Coconino County was located further southwest than Herriman's fanciful version.

Herriman was enamored with Monument Valley and its impressive rock formations.

The Dingbat Family finished in 1916, giving up to Baron Bean's debut the next day. The Baron was an impoverished English nobleman, a tramp inspired by Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin. He and his valet, Grimes, would plot ways to get by. The main characters' wives were later introduced and after a run as a domestic strip, with occasional walk-ons from Krazy Kat's world, it came to an end in January 1919. It was replaced the next day by Now Listen Mabel. The formula for this strip was that a young man courting a young woman would be caught in a compromising situation, which he would try to explain away with "Now listen Mabel..." The strip lasted until that December.

"It happens that in America iron and fantasy are practised in the major arts by only one or two men, producing high-class trash; and Mr Herriman, working in a despised medium, without an atom of pretentiousness, is day after day producing something essentially fine. It is the result of a naive sensibility rather like that of the douanier Rousseau; it does not lack intelligence, because it is a thought-out, a constructed piece of work."

Gilbert Seldes in The Seven Lively Arts (1924)

Krazy Kat gained an appreciative audience in the world of the arts. 1916 saw Krazy Kat's film debut. The first animated films starring a cat were produced by Hearst's International Film Service, though without Herriman's direct involvement. In 1922, Adolph Bolm choreographed a jazz-pantomime Krazy Kat ballet written by John Alden Carpenter. It was first performed in New York in 1922 by Ballet Intime and Herriman illustrated the libretto and designed the costumes and scenario. While it was not a great success, the critics Deems Taylor, Stark Young and Henrietta Straus wrote favorably about it. The strip itself was the subject of an article by literary critic Gilbert Seldes in the May 1922 issue of Vanity Fair called "Golla, Golla the Comic Strip's Art". Seldes expanded this article as part of his book on the popular arts, The Seven Lively Arts (1924), in which Krazy received a chapter, entitled "The Krazy Kat That Walks by Himself". This remains the most famous piece of writing about Krazy Kat, and the earliest example of a critic from the world of high art giving legitimacy to the comic strip medium. Vanity Fair inducted Herriman into their Hall of Fame in their April 1923 issue.

Autumn 1922 saw the first daily installment of Stumble Inn, the first non-Krazy Kat strip he had done since 1919. A verbose strip, whose Sundays were often overrun with prose, it starred Uriah and Ida Stumble, who rented rooms to a cast of strange characters. The daily was short-lived, but the Sundays lasted three years.

California again, later career and death (1922–1944)

Hearst had given Herriman a lifetime contract with his King Features Syndicate, which gave Herriman the security to live anywhere he wanted. In 1922, he moved back to Hollywood, from where he could make frequent visits to the Arizona desert. He and his family settled into a two-story Spanish-style home at 1617 North Sierra Bonita in Hollywood.

Herriman's closest friend, Hollywood writer "Beanie" Walker

In Hollywood, Herriman developed ties with members of the film industry. He had known Hal Roach Studio members Tom McNamara (director) and "Beanie" Walker from their newspaper days. Walker was the head writer on the Our Gang shorts and Herriman's best friend. In the early 1920s, Herriman occasionally drew his strips at the Roach Studio. He met celebrities such as Will Rogers and Frank Capra and presented some of them with hand-colored drawings. He loved Charlie Chaplin's films and reviewed The Gold Rush in the magazine Motion Picture Classics in October 1925.

From August 1925 until September 1929, King Features required that Herriman design the Krazy Kat Sundays so that they could be run either as a full Sunday page or as two four-panel dailies. Herriman lamented intrusion on his page designs and the artwork of the period took on a rushed look. He was made to focus more on the strip's characterization and it is in this period that the Krazy–Ignatz–Offisa Pupp love triangle for which the strip is remembered become fully developed. Pupp would pine for Krazy, Krazy loved Ignatz and Ignatz hated Krazy and would pelt the annoying "Kat" with a brick, resulting in his imprisonment by Pupp.

Throughout the late 1920s, Herriman made frequent trips to Kayenta, Arizona in the Navajo country about 25 miles (40 km) from Monument Valley. He also made winter trips to Mexico. The desert, Navajo artwork and Mexican pottery and architecture became more prominent in Coconino County, as well as Spanish vocabulary in the dialogue. Herriman did little work on these excursions and it is likely that his strip work was done in hurried bursts when in Hollywood.

Stumble Inn came to an end in early 1926 and was replaced with the domestic strip Us Husbands (with Mistakes Will Happen as a "topper"), which ran until the end of the year. In 1928, Herriman took over the strip Embarrassing Moments, which had begun in 1922 and had been drawn by several different cartoonists. The strip eventually became Bernie Burns, in which the embarrassing moments would happen to the title character. The strip appeared in few papers and after it ended in 1932, Herriman worked on no other strip than Krazy Kat. He did provide illustrations for Don Marquis' popular Archy and Mehitabel, a series of books of poetry about a cat and a cockroach.

In 1930, Herriman sold his first Hollywood home to a friend and moved the family to 2217 Maravilla Drive, a Spanish-style mansion atop a hill in Hollywood. It was adorned with paintings of Southwest and Native themes and had a Mexican-style garden paved with flagstones and decorated with painted pots and tropical plants. Herriman later bought the lot across the street and made a public park out of it.

The 1930s were a period of tragedy for Herriman. On September 29, 1931, his wife Mabel died as the result of an automobile accident. In 1939, his daughter Bobbie died unexpectedly at age 30. He never remarried, choosing to live in Los Angeles with his cats and dogs. After Mabel's death, he had a close relationship with cartoonist James Swinnerton's first wife, Louise, with whom he frequently exchanged letters. He had a kidney operation in spring 1938 and during his ten-week convalescence King Features reran old Krazy Kat strips.

Starting in 1935, Krazy Kat ran in color. (November 7, 1937)

Krazy Kat's popularity fell considerably over the years. In the 1930s it was running in only thirty-five newspapers, while its contemporaries such as Bringing Up Father were reportedly running in up to a thousand. Herriman realized his $750-per-week salary from Hearst's King Features Syndicate was far more than the revenue the strip could be generating, but Hearst refused Herriman's offer to take a pay cut. Hearst let it be known that Herriman was to continue the strip as long as he liked. From 1935, Krazy Kat appeared in color, which Herriman made bold use of. He reduced the amount of hatchwork and used larger, more open panels.

Herriman died in his sleep in his home near Hollywood on April 25, 1944, after a long illness. On his death certificate, the cause of death was listed as "non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver", and despite his mixed-race heritage, he was listed as "caucasian". According to his request, his ashes were scattered over Monument Valley. The New York Journal-American ran a front-page obituary on him.

On June 25, 1944, two months after Herriman's death, the last of his completed Krazy Kat strips, a full-page Sunday, was printed. An incompletely inked pencilling of a week's worth of daily strips was found on his drawing board at the time of his death. His funeral at Little Church of Flowers at Forest Lawn Memorial Park was attended by few. Cartoonist Harry Hershfield spoke at the funeral, saying, "If ever there was a saint on earth, it was George Herriman". At the time, Hearst usually brought in new cartoonists when the artists of a popular strip quit or died, but an exception was made for Herriman, as it was felt that no one else could take his place.

Personal life

The Herriman family in 1915 (from left, "Bobbie", Mabel, George and "Toots")

He was described as self-deprecatingly modest and disliked being photographed. The New York Journal-American's obituary described him as a devoted husband and father, of slight build, mild-mannered and an anonymous contributor to charities for the needy. He was generous to his friends and sold his first Hollywood house, which had bought for $50,000, to a friend for $40,000.

Though a private person, he was said to be an entertaining host to his friends. He would sometimes stay silent during social occasions, however and often would step out to do the dishes, which he said he enjoyed as it gave him the opportunity to think. His favorite game was poker, which he particularly enjoyed playing with his fellow cartoonists.

He had a great love of animals and had a large number of dogs and cats. He usually kept to a vegetarian diet, except when it made him feel too weak and refused to ride horses. He so admired Henry Ford's pacifist stance that he would only buy Ford automobiles. He would trade in for a new model each year.

He married his childhood sweetheart Mabel Lillian Bridge in Los Angeles on July 7, 1902. They had two daughters: Mabel (May 10, 1903 – November 13, 1962; nicknamed "Toodles", later "Toots"); and Barbara (1909–1939; nicknamed "Bobbie"), who had epilepsy. He loved animals and had five dogs and thirteen cats in 1934. His only grandchild, Dinah (nicknamed "Dee") was born to Bobbie and her husband, author-scriptwriter Ernest Pascal.

Race and identity

Though Herriman had mixed ethnicity, he partook in the ethnic humor that was typical at the time. (Musical Mose, February 16, 1902)

Herriman hid his "kinky hair" under a hat to disguise his mulatto heritage (1902)

Herriman was born to mixed-race parents, but in the post-Plessy v. Ferguson U.S., in which "separate but equal" racial segregation was enshrined, such people had to choose to identify as either black or white. Herriman seems to have identified himself as white and his early work is "replete with black caricatures", according to comics academic Jeet Heer, such as in Musical Mose, where the strip's African-American musician wishes his "color would fade". Racial ambivalence crept into Krazy Kat, as on two occasions where Krazy's black fur was dyed white. Ignatz fell in love with the whitened Krazy, only to return to hate (and brick-throwing) when the truth was revealed. Similarly, in an oft-repeated gag, Ignatz would accidentally become covered with coal dust and would be spurned by the normally love-struck Krazy. In one such episode, upon being hit with a brick by the blackened Ignatz, Krazy disparagingly declared, "A lil Eetiopium Mice, black like a month from midnights. Fuwi!" Krazy returned to loving Ignatz only after he reverted to his white self.

Herriman's ethnic heritage was unknown to his colleagues. Fellow cartoonist Tad Dorgan nicknamed him "the Greek", a label which stuck and was taken up by his biographers and the press, who called him the son of a Greek baker. At other times, he was identified as French, Irish and Turkish He told a friend that he was Creole and speculated he may have "Negro blood" in him, as he had "kinky hair", The friend said that Herriman wore his trademark hat to hide his hair, which may have been an attempt to pass as white. He said that he dreamed of being reborn a Navajo. On his death certificate, he was listed as "Caucasian", and daughter Mabel had his father's birthplace listed as Paris and his mother's as Alsace-Lorraine.

His mixed-race heritage was made known in 1971 when sociologist Arthur Asa Berger discovered that Herriman's race was listed by the New Orleans Board of Health as "colored" and that the 1880 census listed his parents as "mulatto". The "Greek" label stuck with some biographers, however, notably Bill Blackbeard in his introductions to the Krazy and Ignatz volumes in the early 2000s. Later research at the New Orleans Public Library by Brian Nelson revealed that his maternal grandmother was born in Havana, Cuba, that all his relatives were listed as "mulatto" on the 1890 census and that Herriman may also have Spanish or Native blood.

Style

Herriman drew with what cartoonist Edward Sorel called a "liberated, spontaneous-looking style[...]a cartoon counterpart of expressionism". It was organic and his pen strokes had a dynamic, thick-and-thin range that is instantly recognizable and difficult to imitate. His Krazy Kat Sundays showed Herriman at his most daring—no page had the same panel layout or logo. In his last few years, Herriman's arthritis led to an ever-scratchier style of art, in which he used a knife to scratch out whites from inked surfaces, giving the artwork a woodcut look.

Reception and legacy

E. E. Cummings wrote the introduction to the first Krazy Kat book in 1946.

Krazy Kat was popular with intellectuals, artists and critics. In 1921, composer John Alden Carpenter, long an admirer of Herriman's, approached the cartoonist to collaborate on a Krazy Kat ballet. President Woodrow Wilson refused to miss any installment of Krazy Kat and would bring it to cabinet meetings. Herriman's illustrations for Archie and Mehitabel won the praise of writer E. B. White. Cartoonist Edward Sorel claims that Krazy Kat's lack of popularity later in its run was largely due to Hearst editorial policies. He said that, although Hearst himself championed the strip, the "lowbrow" type of reader his papers attracted were unlikely to appreciate Herriman's style of work.

Following Herriman's death, the strip was discontinued, unlike most popular strips which were continued by other cartoonists after their creators' deaths. His stature was such that, decades after his death, his work was displayed in art galleries.

The strip has had a lasting influence on a large number of cartoonists. Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell calls Krazy Kat one of his foremost influences, and is co-author of the heavily-researched Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman (1986). Will Eisner discovered Herriman's comics when he was selling newspapers in the 1930s. He called Krazy Kat "the big strong influence" on his own work. Art Spiegelman called Herriman one of his "conscious influences". Herriman's influence on American underground comix, such as in the work of Robert Crumb, Denis Kitchen and Bobby London, was widespread, for his shape-shifting, psychedelic backgrounds, lack of respect for convention and his irreverence. Journalist Paul Krassner called Crumb "the illegitimate offspring of Krazy Kat". Cartoonist Chris Ware was so taken with Herriman's work that he made a pilgrimage to Monument Valley to see with his own eyes the desert landscapes that inspired much of Herriman's art.

"[...]I always thought if I could do something as good as Krazy Kat, I would be happy. Krazy Kat was always my goal."

Charles Schulz in 1967

Krazy Kat was a primary influence on other cartoonists such as Charles Schulz of Peanuts, Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes, and the Italian Massimo Mattioli. Walt Kelly paid homage to Herriman in some of his Pogo work. Dr. Seuss expressed fondness for Krazy Kat, and children's literature scholar Philip Nel has detected Herriman's influence in Seuss's works, especially in his zig-zagging, Coconino County-like backgrounds. In 1987, Jay Cantor wrote a postmodern novel called Krazy Kat: A Novel in Five Panels, in which the retired Krazy and Ignatz contemplate a comeback in a post-atomic world.

Since 1997 the Small Press Expo has held the annual Ignatz Awards, in honor of Herriman's mouse from Krazy Kat. It recognizes talent in independent comics publishing. Krazy Kat was ranked first on The Comics Journal's list of the greatest comics of the twentieth century.

List of comic strips

Baron Bean daily (c. 1916–1917)

Comic strips by George Herriman

Title	Begin date	End date
Musical Mose	February 16, 1902	March 9, 1902
Professor Otto and his Auto	March 30, 1902	December 28, 1902
Acrobatic Archie	April 13, 1902	January 25, 1903
Two Jollie Jackies	January 11, 1903	November 15, 1903
Lariat Pete	September 6, 1903	November 15, 1903
Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade	January 2, 1904	October 20, 1906
Home Sweet Home	February 22, 1904	March 4, 1904
Bud Smith	October 29, 1905	October 20, 1906
Mr. Proones the Plunger	December 7, 1906	December 26, 1906
Rosy Posy, Mama's Girl	May 19, 1906	September 15, 1906
Grandma's Girl	November 26, 1905	May 19, 1906
Baron Mooch	October 12, 1909	December 19, 1909
Mary's Home from College	December 20, 1909	December 20, 1909
Gooseberry Sprig	December 23, 1909	January 24, 1910
Alexander the Cat	November 7, 1909	January 9, 1910
Daniel and Pansy	November 21, 1909	December 4, 1909
The Dingbat Family/The Family Upstairs	June 20, 1910	January 4, 1916
Krazy Kat	October 28, 1913	June 25, 1944
Baron Bean	January 5, 1916	January 22, 1919
Now Listen Mabel	January 23, 1919	December 18, 1916
Stumble Inn	October 30, 1922	October 30, 1925
Us Husbands	January 9, 1926	December 18, 1926
Mistakes Will Happen	January 9, 1926	December 18, 1926
Embarrassing Moments/Bernie Burns	April 28, 1928	December 3, 1932

Book collections

Chris Ware designed the complete Krazy Kat Sundays series Krazy and Ignatz.

Krazy Kat has been collected in a variety of formats over the years. The first was a collection of two hundred Sunday strips published by Henry Holt and Company in 1946, titled George Herriman's Krazy Kat with an introduction by poet E. E. Cummings, who had attended Harvard with Gilbert Seldes. Between 1988 and 1992, comics historian Bill Blackbeard attempted to produce the first complete reprinting of Krazy Kat Sunday strips, with designer Dennis Galligher. The nine volumes covered nearly a decade's worth of the strips before the project came to an end with the bankruptcy of its publisher, Eclipse Comics. Blackbeard made the attempt again in 2002 with the Krazy and Ignatz series, published by Fantagraphics Books and designed by cartoonist Chris Ware. For this series, Ware avoided using a standardized logo and choose to use bold cover designs, incorporating a mixture of geometric shapes, Navajo designs and a variety of typefaces along with snippets of Herriman's artwork. The complete series was made up of thirteen volumes.

In 2010, Sunday Press Books released Krazy Kat: A Celebration of Sundays (ISBN 978-0-9768885-8-1). It reprinted a selection of Krazy Kat Sundays in a 14-by-17-inch (36 cm × 43 cm) format, approximating their original printed size, along with some pre-Krazy Kat work, edited by Patrick McDonnell and Peter Maresca. The same year, IDW published the Craig Yoe-edited Krazy + Ignatz in Tiger Tea (ISBN 978-1-60010-645-3), reprinting the longest instance of continuity in the daily Krazy Kat strips, originally run in 1936. In 2012, IDW began a three-volume Baron Bean reprinting as part of their "Library of American Comics" in 2012, and Fantagraphics released George Herriman's Stumble Inn (ISBN 978-1-60699-554-9). Fantagraphics has also announced plans to collect the complete Krazy Kat dailies at an unspecified time in the future.

References

Works cited

Books

Collins, Jim (1994). Architectures of Excess: Cultural Life in the Information Age. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-90706-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Elam, Michele (2011). The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics and Aesthetics in the New Millennium. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7730-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Estren, Mark James (1974). A History of Underground Comics. Ronin Publishing. ISBN 978-0-914171-64-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Gabilliet, Jean-Paul; Beaty, Bart; Nguyen, Nick (2010). Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-267-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Healey, Robin Patrick (1998). Twentieth-century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography 1929–1997. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-0800-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Heer, Jeet (2010). "Inventing Cartooning Ancestors: Ware and the Comics Canon". In Ball, David M.; Kuhlman, Martha B. (eds.). The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing Is a Way of Thinking. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 3–13. ISBN 978-1-60473-442-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Harrington Hall, Mary (2000). "A Conversation with Charles Schulz". In Inge, M. Thomas (ed.). Charles M. Schulz: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 45–75. ISBN 978-1-57806-305-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Hignite, Todd (2006). "Robert Crumb". In the Studio: Visits with Contemporary Cartoonists. Yale University Press. pp. 6–39. ISBN 978-0-300-11016-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Jacobowitz, Susan (2007). "'Words and Pictures Together': An Interview with Art Spiegelman". In Witek, Joseph (ed.). Art Spiegelman: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 152–162. ISBN 978-1-934110-12-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Kaplan, Arie (2008). From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 978-0-8276-0843-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Marschall, Richard (1997). America's great comic-strip artists: from the Yellow Kid to Peanuts. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN 978-1-55670-646-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Martell, Nevin (2009). Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-2984-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

McDonnell, Patrick; O'Connell, Karen; Havenon, Georgia Riley de (1986). Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-9185-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

McDonnell, Patrick (2007). The Best of Mutts. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-6844-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

McGavran, James Holt (1999). Literature and the Child: Romantic Continuations, Postmodern Contestations. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-690-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Nel, Philip (2003). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-1708-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Nel, Philip (2012). Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI and Transformed Children's Literature. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-636-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Pollack, Howard (2001). John Alden Carpenter: A Chicago Composer. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07014-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Seldes, Gilbert (1924). "The Krazy Kat That Walks By Himself". The Seven Lively Arts. pp. 231–245. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Tompkins, Vincent (1996). American Decades: 1910–1919. Gale Research. ISBN 978-0-8103-5723-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Watterson, Bill (1995). The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book. Andrews and McMeel. ISBN 0-8362-0438-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Journals and magazines

Amiran, Eyal (2000). "George Herriman's Black Sentence: The Legibility of Race in Krazy Kat". Mosaic. 33 (3): 56–70. Retrieved October 13, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Blackbeard, Bill (1983). "The Forgotten Years of George Herriman". Nemo (1). Fantagraphics Books: 50–60. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Boxer, Sarah (2006). "'Masters of American Comics': UCLA Hammer Museum Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles". Artforum International. Retrieved September 28, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Bunche, Steve (August 24, 2010). "Like A Brick Upside Your Head: George Herriman's 'Tiger Tea'". Publishers Weekly. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Cornog, Martha (May 3, 2012). "Graphic Novels Prepub Alert: A New Life for Peanuts, Jeff Smith's Series for Adults & Tezuka's Final Work". Library Journal. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Hancock, La Touche (1902). "American Caricature and Comic Art". The Bookman: 263–274. Retrieved October 13, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Harvey, R.C. (2003). "Re-emerging Talent of the Year: George Herriman". The Comics Journal (250). Fantagraphics Books: 59–62. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Harvey, R.C. (April 10, 2010). "Krazy Theme Park". The Comics Journal. Fantagraphics Books. Retrieved October 2, 2012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Ito, Robert (2003). "Love Hurts". Los Angeles. 48 (1). Emmis Communications: 94. Retrieved October 2, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Lundy, Tiel (2011). "Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist". Shofar. 29 (2). Retrieved September 28, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Sorel, Edward (1992). Marschall, Richard (ed.). "Krazy Kat: A Love Story". Nemo (32). Fantagraphics Books: 22–25. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Time staff (May 8, 1944). "Among the Unlimitless Etha". Time. Retrieved May 10, 2008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Newspapers

Boxer, Sarah (July 7, 2007). "Herriman: Cartoonist who equalled Cervantes". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 3, 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Chicago Daily Tribune staff (September 30, 1931). "Obituary". Chicago Daily Tribune.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Heer, Jeet (December 11, 2005). "A cat-and-mouse game of identity: Excerpt: George Herriman played with race in his work and real life". The Toronto Star. Archived from the original on December 23, 2005. Retrieved June 20, 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Kramer, Hilton (January 17, 1982). "Critics' Choices". The New York Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Los Angeles Times staff (September 30, 1931). "Obituary". Los Angeles Times. p. 20.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Lyons, Leonard (May 3, 1944). "The Lyons Den". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 3, 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

McCash, Doug (July 25, 2010). "New book celebrates, century-old 'Krazy Kat' cartoons created by a Crescent City-born artist". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved October 17, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Mostrom, Anthony (August 29, 2010). "L.A. cartoonist was obscure and misunderstood – the epitome of avant-garde". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 31, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

New York Times staff (April 27, 1944). "George Herriman, Noted Cartoonist. Creator of 'Krazy Kat' Comic Strip Dies in Hollywood at 66. Once a House Painter". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Sabin, Roger (June 16, 2002). "A cat above the rest". The Observer. Retrieved October 2, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Stern, Alexander (November 20, 2008). "Symphony in Black and White: Krazy Kat Kontinued". Times Union. Retrieved October 17, 2012.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Tashlin, Frank (November 3, 1946). "In Coconino County". The New York Times. p. 161.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Web

Bloom, John (June 23, 2003). "Krazy Kat Keeps Kracking". United Press International. Retrieved September 27, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Boxer, Sarah (May 16, 2012). "Krazy Kriticism: The Tics of the Trade". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved October 12, 2012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Find a Grave staff (March 4, 2007). "Mabel "Toots" Herriman". Find a Grave. Retrieved January 12, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Heer, Jeet (March 12, 2011). "Racism as a Stylistic Choice and other Notes". The Comics Journal. Retrieved January 16, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Mautner, Chris (July 4, 2011). "Comics College | George Herriman". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved September 27, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Siegel, Harry (December 3, 2004). "Krazy's America – No Austerities". New Partisan. Retrieved October 12, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Comic Book Resources staff (June 19, 2012). "IDW Publishing Solicitations for September, 2012". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved October 13, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Further reading

• Inge, M. Thomas (1996). "Was Krazy Black? The Racial Identity of George Herriman". Inks: Cartoonsand Comic Art Studies. 3 (2): 2–9. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Marschall, Richard (1985). Marschall, Richard (ed.). "The Diary of a Deluded Dandy: Baron Bean de la Mancha He Runs for Constable". Nemo (16). Fantagraphics Books: 6–14. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Orvell, Miles (1992). "Writing Posthistorically: Krazy Kat, Maus and the Contemporary Fiction Cartoon". American Literary History. 4 (1). Oxford University Press: 110–128. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• George Herriman at Find a Grave
• Krazy Kat – The Coconino County Home Page
• ignatzmouse.net, "The only website dedicated to 'Ignatz Mouse'"
• Comic Strip Library collection of public domain Krazy Kat strips
• Baron Mooch collection at Barnacle Press
• Herriman's Krazy Kountry at Coconino World has selections from Mary's Home from College
• Video tour of George Herriman's New Orleans
• Fitzgerald, Eddie (January 5, 2012). "Tracing the Evolution of George Herriman's Style". Retrieved October 17, 2012.