There were several great geniuses in the early years of the comics, like Winsor McCay and E.C. Segar, but there was no one quirkier, stranger or more entertaining than George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse and "Offissa" Pupp, the three corners of a love/hate triangle centered in the desert southwest's Coconino County. Pupp loved Krazy, Krazy loved Ignatz, Ignatz threw bricks at Krazy and was arrested by Officer Pupp. Thus runs the world away. Poets and writers from E.E. Cummings to Umberto Eco have sung the praises of this surrealistic strip, but that doesn't make it any less fun. Krazy appeared in one form or another from 1913 to 1944, but the 1933-34 period covered in this volume was one of the most depressing times of the Kat's kareer.

Due to a lack of popularity, Krazy was being carried only by a few newspapers, and Herriman's meticulously drawn Sunday pages were being split up by editorial butchers and pieces of them were issued daily instead of the intended one fell swoop. Derya Ataker, the editor of this series (along with Bill Blackbeard), and the preservationist charged with turning up the strips, had to reassemble the dailies to create his best idea of what the Sunday strips would have been like, and the results are probably quite close to what Herriman intended, though not identical.

Another problem was that since so few papers carried the strip at this time, it was difficult to find good copies, though for the most part the strips are quite readable, even if some of the nuances of the artwork are lacking. All in all, Ataker did a fine job with the material he had access to, and because these strips are among the rarest of Herriman's output, we're lucky to have them at all. And after all, they're just as funny and strange and twisted as most of Harriman's output. So read, enjoy and be grateful!

The volume is chock full of other Herriman goodies, including five "Mary's Home from College" strips with an early Krazy, 10 episodes of "The Amours of Marie Anne Magee" and an assortment of old newspaper clippings about Herriman and some single-panel strips, along with a not quite P.C. "Darktown Aristocracy" page. The annotations are formidable, and the Herriman material utterly priceless. For those new to Krazy, this isn't the best place to start, but Herrimaniacs should find naught but utter delight in these pages.

by Chet Williamson
Rambles.NET
12 August 2006