(Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934 - "Necromancy by the Blue Bean B...)
Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934 - "Necromancy by the Blue Bean Bush" 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 is 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 & Ignatz: Komplete 1935-1936 A Wild Warmth of Chromatic Gravy
(by George Herman; designed by Chris Ware; edited by Bill ...)
by George Herman; designed by Chris Ware; edited by Bill Blackbeard
The heretofore black-and-white Sunday Krazy Kat returned in full spectacular color in June 1935, collected here from then through 1936, with a flood of rare color extras and a revelatory essay by Jeet Heer.
(An anthology of George Herriman's famous cat and mouse du...)
An anthology of George Herriman's famous cat and mouse duo/rivalry Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse. This volume is composed of daily comic strips which ran in America during 1919.
Krazy & Ignatz 1931-1932: "A Kat a'Lilt with Song" (Krazy Kat)
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The fourth volume of chronological reprintings of the c...)
The fourth volume of chronological reprintings of the classic newspaper strip Krazy Kat portrays the deceptively simple triangle hat sustatained if for more than 30 years. Sexually indeterminate Krazy waits lovingly to be beaned by bricks-- invariably interpreted as tokens of affection--lobbed by caustic Ignatz Mouse; meanwhile, Offissa Pupp attempts , usually vainly to thwart Ignatz, in part to uphold the forces of order and in part out of unrequited love for the Kat.
Herriman's brilliant graphics and imaginative designs , and the poetry in the characters' fanciful, fractured dialogue, add up to something still unmatched in comics-- or any other medium. These Sunday episodes from 1931-1932 appear in their original black in white.
This one includes an informative essay on Herriman's pre-Krazy career and samples the '31-32 daily strips. Three quarters of a century after their creation, these incomparable comics retain their ineffable appeal, especially in this beautiful showcase volume.
(Widely praised as the greatest comic strip of all time, t...)
Widely praised as the greatest comic strip of all time, the initial phase of George Herriman's KRAZY KAT as its own daily strip in newspapers has been all too often overlooked through the years. This book collects daily strips published between November 1913 and February 1914; the first few months of the strip's run. Edited and with an Introduction by cartoonist Snorre Smári Mathiesen, author of the book Max Linder: Father of Film Comedy (BearManor Media, 2017).
Krazy and Ignatz, 1943-1944: "He Nods in Quiescent Siesta" (Krazy Kat)
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Krazy and Ignatz 1943-1944 covers the last two years of...)
Krazy and Ignatz 1943-1944 covers the last two years of Herriman's masterpiece. With this volume, Fantagraphics and its precursor Eclipse will have reprinted the entire 29-year run of the Krazy Kat Sundays! Like Charles Schulz, George Herriman was a cartoonist to the very end. Aside from collecting the last masterful year and a half of "Krazy Kat," this new volume will offer a retrospective look at Herriman's life at the drawing table, offering many never before seen samples of his original art (which the cartoonist often lovingly hand-colored for friends). Gathered from many scattered collections, these pages testify to Herriman's invererate passion for drawing. Rounding out the volume are scores of Krazy Kat daily strips also from Herriman's last years, further testament to the cartoonists vitality. Series editor and veteran comics historian, Bill Blackbeard, also provides a concluding, wide-ranging essay on the life and art of Herriman. More than a simple reprint collection, Krazy and Ignatz 1943-1944 portrays the full range of a cartoonist who remained an artist all his life.
(Reprinted for the very first time, these century-old stri...)
Reprinted for the very first time, these century-old strips comprise a key early work from the creator of Krazy Kat, perhaps the most lauded cartoonist of all time.
This book concludes a three-volume LOAC Essentials sub-series by presenting the final year of Baron Bean, one of Herriman's richest and funniest creations, second only to Krazy Kat, whose citizens would occasionally grace these panels.
Herriman found few themes as fascinating as the power of titles and the ways in which worth in society is determined based on a hat, a name, or the color of one's skin. Each day he gives reason to question not only the superiority of would-be "Barons" over their vassals and retainers, but equally the superiority of so-called "humans" over the animals they call "pets."
Krazy And Ignatz 1919-1921: A Kind, Benevolent And Amiable Brick (Krazy & Ignatz)
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As Fantagraphics' ambitious plan to reprint every singl...)
As Fantagraphics' ambitious plan to reprint every single Sunday Krazy Kat page created by George Herriman for close to three decades (this being the penultimate book) careens toward the finish line, this volume features another three years' worth of Sunday strips - over 150 little masterpieces by the greatest cartoonist of all time, featuring the greatest comic-strip love triangle of all time: "kat," "mice"and "pupp." Each page is a hilarious, poetic masterpiece crackling with verbal wit and graphic brilliance. Those were the days! In the introductory essay, editor Bill Blackbeard chronicles Krazy Kat's ascent from its earliest days as a tiny pendant for Herriman's earlier strips "The Dingbat Family" and "The Family upstairs" to its own full feature. A second major article in this volume is Bob Callahan's "Geo. Herriman's Los Angeles," a fascinating look at Herriman's pre-Krazy Kat days as journalist/illustrator, covering such things as a Mexican bullfight (Herriman was appalled), the opening of a new "bums' jail" (Herriman's sympathies were clearly with the vagrants), and UFO sightings - all accompanied by Herriman's virtuoso cartoons, of course. As usual, the cover is designed by Chris Ware, featuring a striking two-color look that will set this latest volume apart from the previous eleven.
Krazy Kat and The Art of George Herriman: A Celebration
(Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman is a tribute to on...)
Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman is a tribute to one of the most influential and innovative comic strips and creators of all time. This unique collection of rare art, essays, memorabilia, and biography highlights the career of the first genius of comics, George Herriman, and his iconic creations, Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse.
During its 31-year run, Krazy Kat was enormously popular with the public, as well as influential writers, artists, and intellectuals of the time. This book includes original essays by Jay Cantor, Douglas Wolk, Harry Katz, Richard Thompson, Dee Cox (Herriman's granddaughter), Craig McCracken, Bill Watterson, and authorized reprints of two seminal essays on Herriman by Gilbert Seldes and E. E. Cummings, alongside newly discovered vintage essays by TAD, Summerfield Baldwin, and Toots Herriman. With Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman, Craig Yoe reveals this influential artist and writer for a whole new generation.
Praise for Krazy Kat & the Art of George Herriman:
“The gorgeous volume includes essays by comics historians and creators (including Calvin & Hobbes’ reclusive Bill Watterson and poet e.e. cummings) as well as generous servings of sketches, strips, original art and more.”
––Miami Herald
“Craig Yoe has dug up never-published artwork, artifacts, and letters that will bring Herriman to life for the uninitiated while giving fans something new to feast on.”
––Los Angeles Magazine
“It’s the ephemera that make this collection invaluable.”
—The A.V. Club
“Craig Yoe has crafted a book that shows as well as it tells; it’s a wonderful combination of elegant design and informed and insightful scholarship that does a fine job of conveying why the comic strip is still so fondly remembered nearly a hundred years after its creation.”
—ICv2
George Joseph Herriman was an American cartoonist. He is best known for his famous comic strips such as Krazy Kat and Blondie.
Background
George Joseph Herriman was born on August 22, 1880, in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He was the oldest child of George Joseph Herriman, a tailor, and Clara (Morel) Herriman. There were at least three other children, two daughters and a son.
Articles published during Herriman's lifetime and apparently based on his own statements describe him as being of either French or Greek parentage and his father as, variously, "a Parisian tailor and amateur astronomer, " a baker, and a barber. Herriman's death certificate lists his parents as natives of France; but it is clear from census and birth records that they were in fact natives of Louisiana, as were his grandparents on both sides.
Accounts of his early life are vague and, probably, often apocryphal. At some time during his childhood the family moved to Los Angeles, where they presumably assumed a white identity.
Education
Somehow Herriman learned to draw and paint, though there are indications that his father frowned upon this pursuit; he did not complete high school. There are stories of his unsuccess at this point, often with a wry turn. Thus there developed the tradition of young Herriman as a feckless, knockabout adolescent, fired from a bakery "for eating too many cream puffs, " failing, out of meekness, as a fruit peddler, and stumbling about on the scaffolding in his brief, equally hapless stint as a house painter.
Career
At one point Herriman apparently worked as a painter of shop windows. One of his sketches was published by the Los Angeles Herald in 1897, and the paper hired him at a salary of two dollars a week, some say as an office boy, others as a worker in the engraving plant. As early as 1901 he began publishing full-color Sunday cartoons, though he had not yet devised any comic strips. By November 1902 he was sufficiently well known to be included in a Bookman magazine survey of American comic artists.
"Lariat Pete, " Herriman's first strip, ran in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1903. Several years later Herriman "rode the rails to New York in search of fortune, " and the sometime cartoonist found himself on Coney Island, where he painted canvases and billboards for sideshows and concession stands and, according to tradition, also worked as a barker for a snake act. At this time he sold a few cartoons to the old Life and Judge, and then landed a job with the New York World on the success of some grotesque billboards. He did political and sports cartoons for the World and developed several short-lived strips, including "Major Ozone, the Fresh Air Fiend, " which ran in the San Francisco Call (1906). In 1907 or 1908 he was hired by the Hearst publications, for whom he drew "Mary" and other comic strips which failed to catch on.
His first successful creation was "The Dingbat Family" (1910), whose housecat and its nemesis mouse became so popular that they soon appeared as a substrip below the Dingbats, becoming "Krazy Kat and Ignatz" in 1911. The romantic triangle of the Kat ("he of the indeterminate gender"), Ignatz Mouse, and Offissa Bull Pupp was played against scenery of arid Coconino County, a background in a constant state of transmogrification, and in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The nexus of the strip was the unending and unresolved warfare of Ignatz, the truculent brick-tossing cynic, against Krazy, who loved the Mouse with whole-souled devotion, while the phlegmatic doughty Offissa Pupp, enamored of the Kat, strove to frustrate the Mouse's evil designs. Numerous other characters passed through the strip and engaged in tender or bizarre by-play, and there were excursions into allegory and myth, but the heart of the strip was its love story.
In 1921 the composer John Alden Carpenter created a jazz pantomime based on the strip, which was performed by the Chicago Opera Company before being presented in New York at a Town Hall Concert in 1922, with scenario, costumes, and moving backdrops by Herriman. Generally dismissed by critics, the production, and the strip that inspired it, were praised by Deems Taylor in Vanity Fair. A later performance in the Greenwich Village Follies prompted the critic Stark Young to write a fond tribute, in the New Republic, to the "tiny, diaphanous and crack-brained epic of love. " Writing of the strip itself, Gilbert Seldes (The Seven Lively Arts, 1924) praised Herriman as a master of irony and pathos comparable to Dickens and Charlie Chaplin. The "spiritual force" and "frank frenzy" of "Krazy Kat" moved E. E. Cummings to celebrate the strip as a "meteoric burlesk melodrama" of the triumph of love, democracy, and individual integrity. Other critics and scholars have examined it in terms of surrealism and comic strip artistry, and even as a document of social and economic crisis. Herriman himself regarded his creation in simple and deeply affectionate terms.
In 1923 Herriman began a new strip, "Stumble Inn, " using characters from his earlier creations. He also illustrated a book by Don Marquis, Archy Does His Part (1935). He died in their Los Angeles home at the age of sixty-three of nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. Following services at the Little Church of the Flowers, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, his remains were cremated.
Herriman usually kept to a vegetarian diet, except when it made him feel too weak, and he refused to ride horses.
He so admired Henry Ford's pacifist stance that he would only buy Ford automobiles. He purchased a new model annually.
Personality
A modest man with aspirations toward serious painting, an animal lover, and a dandy, Herriman was greatly loved by a small circle of intimates. He was described as self-deprecatingly modest, and he 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. He was generous to his friends, and sold his first Hollywood house, which he 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 and would often leave the room to wash dishes, which he said he enjoyed as it gave him the opportunity to think.
Interests
Herriman's favorite game was poker, which he particularly enjoyed playing with his fellow cartoonists.
Herriman had a great love of animals, and had a large number of dogs and cats; he had five dogs and thirteen cats in 1934.
Connections
Herriman married his childhood sweetheart Mabel Lillian Bridge in Los Angeles on July 7, 1902. They had two daughters: Mabel, nicknamed "Toodles", later "Toots" and Barbara, nicknamed "Bobbie", who had epilepsy.
After the death of his wife around 1934, Herriman lived with his daughter.