Krazy and Ignatz, 1939-1940: A Brick Stuffed With Moom-bins

Krazy and Ignatz

by George Herriman, Bill Blackbeard (Editor), Jeet Heer (Introduction)

by George Herman; designed by Chris Ware; edited by Bill Blackbeard
George Herriman integrated full, spectacular color into Krazy Kat in June, 1935. The gorgeous evolution continues in this third color volume, which includes the Sunday strips from all of 1939 and 1940. Included is an unpublished Herriman painting from the 1920s.

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

120 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

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

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

1939 has a record 53 Sundays so it's 105 total!
->Usually there are reprints here and there which they did not print but these two years are totally full of originals. I want to get a grand total from flipping through my collection but I still have 1 of the 28 years to read so I'm going to stall until I get it. 1924 is going to cost me because it's the last book of the Eclipse series so it probably had the least printed.

Story: ****

Art: ***

[Steven Heywood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madly inventive and inventively mad. The cognitive dissonance of the Krazy Kat strips is as exhaustive as it is addictively amusing.

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some say this is the best comic strip ever. It is certainly tied for first. Witty, intellectually challenging, allusive, endlessly creative both in the plotting and the art. It dazzles, yet is not for every taste. It is too smart and subtle to have been popular in its own time or in ours. This is late work, but the strip never faltered.

[Bria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not only is it a constant statement on corruption in law enforcement, it's a fresh challenge to excessively literate people like me, who recognize words by sight and don't pronounce them in their heads.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't get any better than Krazy Kat. This collection, from the strip's later years, doesn't represent my favorite era, but it's still a marvel of originality, absurdity, humor and cracked wisdom - even when I can't make heads or tails of it, there's no such thing as a "bad" Krazy Kat comic.

[Mark]

Dark. Surreal. Romantic. Futile. Of course I love Krazy Kat.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Public library copy.