[close] 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. [close]