Krazy and Ignatz, 1937-1938: Shifting Sands Dusts Its Cheeks in Powdered Beauty

Krazy and Ignatz

by George Herriman

by Herriman, Ware, & Blackbeard
George Herriman integrated full spectacular color into Krazy Kat in June, 1935. The gorgeous evolution continues in this 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. Most of these strips in this volume have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago. Never-before-seen Herriman memorabilia is included as a bonus!

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Collections, Art, Fiction, 20th Century

120 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2006

About the author

George Herriman was an American cartoonist celebrated for creating the groundbreaking comic strip Krazy Kat, a work widely regarded as one of the most inventive, poetic, and influential achievements in the history of comics. Raised in a culturally diverse environment and navigating complex racial identities throughout his life, Herriman developed a singular artistic voice that combined humor, surrealism, philosophical reflection, and emotional nuance. He began his career as a newspaper illustrator and political cartoonist before transitioning fully into comic strips, producing several short-lived features and experiments that helped him refine his sense of rhythm, timing, and visual storytelling. Krazy Kat, which emerged from an earlier strip called The Dingbat Family, became his defining work and ran for decades in newspapers across the United States. The strip centered on a triangular relationship among three main characters: Krazy, a blissfully optimistic and androgynous cat; Ignatz Mouse, who continually expressed his contempt or affection by throwing bricks; and Offisa Pupp, a dutiful dog who sought to protect Krazy and maintain order. What might have been a simple gag became, in Herriman’s hands, a lyrical exploration of love, longing, misunderstanding, and the complexities of emotional connection, articulated through shifting perspectives, inventive language, and a dreamlike visual landscape inspired by the American Southwest. Herriman developed a distinctive style that blended loose, expressive brushwork with carefully considered composition, often altering backgrounds from panel to panel to evoke mood rather than physical continuity. His dialogue employed dialects, puns, poetic phrasing, and playful linguistic invention, creating a voice for Krazy Kat that felt both musical and deeply human. The strip attracted a passionate following among intellectuals, writers, and artists, including figures such as Gilbert Seldes, E.E. Cummings, Willem de Kooning, and many others who recognized its sophistication and emotional resonance. However, Krazy Kat never achieved the widespread commercial popularity of contemporaries like Popeye or Li’l Abner and often relied on the support of influential newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who admired Herriman’s work and insisted it remain in publication despite fluctuating readership. Herriman also produced the comic strip Baron Bean, as well as numerous illustrations, editorial drawings, and commercial work throughout his career, but it was Krazy Kat that defined his legacy and shaped the development of visual narrative art. The strip influenced generations of cartoonists and graphic storytellers, contributing to a lineage that includes artists working in newspaper strips, comic books, underground comix, graphic novels, animation, and contemporary experimental media. Herriman maintained a private, quiet personal life, working diligently and steadily, drawing inspiration from the landscapes of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, which he visited frequently and often featured in his art as stylized mesas, desert plateaus, and open skies. His deep engagement with the American Southwest brought texture, symbolism, and environmental presence to Krazy Kat, making setting an integral emotional and thematic component rather than a mere backdrop. Although widely honored posthumously, his work was recognized during his lifetime by peers and critics who understood the originality of his vision. Today, he is acknowledged as one of the key figures who expanded the expressive potential of the comic strip form, demonstrating that sequential art could convey subtle emotional states, philosophical ideas, and complex storytelling with elegance and humor. Herriman’s legacy endures in the ongoing study, republication, and celebration of Krazy Kat, which continues to be admired for its innovation, sensitivity, and unique artistic spirit.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Run don't wokk. Inny collexyun will do, but I heart the full-kuller Sondys.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterpiece. I KNEW it would reach such heights by one of these volumes!

Story = ******
This is the farthest forward that I've ever been in the run of the series and it's just sublime. I had left off in the black and white days of 1930 when he was still a bit too bitten on the brick in his schtick. Now it's in color and off to races with every angle taken on the brick but so much more while remaining always funny and fresh.

His mastery of the language is impressive to this voracious verbiage junkie and being able to understand his frequent Spanish makes it all the better. He is alight in acute alliteration with pert pizzazz and precocious peregrinations of pen. It gets downright poetic often and makes me proud of it's quality constantly.

He even did away with putting apostrophes around just any old thing which got a bit tiresome at times.

Art = ****
He can't draw hands but who cares, ya know? A dog with mittens on is pretty queer and that's just how he wants it anyway.

The color is comparatively, to this contemporarian, crude and commonplace but that's far from his fault.

My only qualm is that he has Krazy running like a human- I relished seeing him with all four feet parallel to the ground.

*->So just exalt in the beauty of it all<-*

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Herriman's Krazy Kat is a highlight from the history of American newspaper comics, and this volume covers a key period (1937-1938) when he was clearly at the top of his game. These color Sunday strips are poetic, and need to be read slowly over a period of time. Herriman's fantastic images of his imagined Coconino County are worth lingering over, and the whimsical language used by his characters is worth reading out loud. Approached in the right way, this volume in immensely rewarding to a sensitive and engaged reader.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Never have I seen a "KAT" handed so powerful a "POW" -'

[Tucker Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantagraphics continues it's paperback collection with the seventh overall book of Krazy Kat cartoons. Crossing the 1935 line brought these books into the color years of Herriman's classic work--they also depressingly bring the reader 3 books away from the year of Herriman's untimely demise. Still, there's a morbid gratitude in the small output that George Herriman had--when someone's work was perfect everytime, it can be easier to deal with when there isn't too much of it. In an apt comparison, Herriman's Krazy Kat is similar to Cervantes literary output: not having any more means that one has more time for Quixote. The impulse that strikes one as the pages get turned in Krazy Kat isn't just "how much better can this possibly get?" but also "When will i find the time to read this again?" As we near the seventy-fifth anniversaries of both the creation and end of Krazy Kat, the amount of impact this brief cartoon continues to make itself felt in animation, newspaper strips and the written word. What was once a strange cartoon taking up space in all of William Randolph Hearst has, years later, become one of the strongest libraries of poetry and art that any American can claim. The likelihood that George Herriman was a black man "posing" lends an even more fascinating aspect to an already near-perfect piece of history.

[Bria · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's this surreal love triangle where the kop is in love with the kat, but the kat is in love with the mouse and gets off on being physically abused by the mouse. The kop, rather than try to uphold the law, instead brands individuals as criminals and then seeks out criminal behavior in whatever they do, finding every action evidence against the mouse, and jailing him essentially on the basis that he belongs in jail no matter what he actually does. The mouse indulges the kat's crush on him and agrees to trysts to beat him with a brick, which the kat lives for, because he finds power and beauty and simple enjoyment in the act. Oddly enough, the brick-peddler is never incriminated for selling the bricks to the mouse, since bricks are not illegal, just beaning pippil in the head with them, even though the brick peddler knows full well what the mouse gets up to. It's this strange little play on law and sin, and love and life, with occasional little jabs on how everybody is terrified of the thought of having a baby.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful bit of whimsy! I can't help but gush and marvel at how wondrous this strip is. This particular collection collects the 1937 to 1938 run of Krazy Kat, a landmark comic-strip that also is a brilliant piece of pop-art. The art is amazing, the writing is top-notch--an challenging.

The strip is about a cat, a mouse, a cop, and a brick. I happened upon this strip decades ago as a child. My parents had a large coffee table book of old comic strips, Krazy Kat was one of my favorites. What attracted me initially to the strip was it's insanely unique backgrounds (a depiction of Arizona, where the creator/author was from). I loved how the sky would shift from white, to black, to plaid, and back.

Overall, a great (quick) read that will leave you wanting more. Check it out if you like classic cartooning or just plain good funnies.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I embarked on the Krazy & Ignatz journey as an academic endeavor, thinking I should read old comics if I'm ever to become an authority. To my surprise, I quite enjoyed the book, laughed out loud not a little, and am rather eager to get my hands on other volumes in this set of reprints. The gender confusion, nearly void landscape, and droll, strange humor make for an absorbing, almost transporting, experience. Bonus points for book design by Chris Ware.

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herriman was decades ahead of his time - he deconstructed and trancended the modern comic strip even while he was invinting the modern comic strip. Required reading for fans of comics as well as any lovers of verbal gymnastics.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

That don't make no sense.

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blithe fun with them Krazy Kritters and their eternal love/hate triangle. Shakespeare references galore.