Review by Woodrow Phoenix
George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, one of the greatest comic strips ever created, has a very idiosyncratic style. This originality is part of its greatness, but it also means it is not for everyone. It was definitely not received gratefully by many regional editors of William Randolph Heart’s newspaper empire who would have gladly dropped it had he given them a choice, but publishing mogul Hearst was such a fan of Herriman’s cartooning in general and Krazy Kat in particular that he gave Herriman a lifetime contract.
Ten years into its run Krazy Kat was still not having the impact Hearst believed it should have, and Hearst ordered the Sunday strips to be laid out in a larger size, eight enlarged panels across a spread to make a greater impact on readers of the New York Evening Journal. This change had little effect on the general appreciation for Krazy Kat and after August 1929, Herriman was allowed to return to drawing his Sunday pages any way he pleased.
The first third of this volume is a little subdued visually by the restricted layout. Although the funny dialogue, ridiculous slapstick situations and poetic interludes are no less powerful, there’s a perceptible lift in the quality of the Sunday pages from September onwards as Herriman brings back the complex, unusual and surprising compositions that he did so brilliantly. The Krazy/Ignatz/Pupp triangle continues to expand as each character misunderstands the others’ true motivations, and their relationship is continually rewoven into new variations of loopiness and silliness, rising to amazing heights of invention with hilarious and often profound effect.
Krazy & Ignatz 1928-1930 is introduced with an essay by Ben Schwartz about Hearst and Herriman’s relationship, plus there is more biographical information from editor Bill Blackbeard, and more rare Herriman art for a variety of publications including two Krazy Kat pages created specially for the prestigious magazine Vanity Fair.
In 1924, cultural critic Gilbert Seldes dedicated a chapter to Krazy Kat in his bestselling book, The Seven Lively Arts. His commentary was a big factor in bringing the strip to the attention of the literary and artistic circles of the time, and “The Krazy Kat That Walks by Himself,” the fifteenth chapter of the first edition of The Seven Lively Arts by Seldes is reproduced in full at the back of this book. Another selection of hand-coloured drawings and paintings by Herriman rounds things off. This is a titanic book both in scale and significance, beautifully designed and produced to fit the historic gravity of its content. More greatness follows in Krazy & Ignatz 1931-1933.
