Synopses & Reviews
Fantagraphics is proud to re-present Krazy Kat to a new generation of readers. Each volume in this series reprints two full years of Sunday strips, or 104 full-page, black-and-white Sunday strips (Herriman did not incorporate color into the strip until 1935). Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationship of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse hated Krazy Kat, the expression of which was in throwing bricks at Krazy's head. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect "her" (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was genderless), mostly by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the other's true motivations. This simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth that led critics like Gilbert Seldes and E. E. Cummings to recognize Herriman's genius almost immediately. Each of Fantagraphics' volumes is designed by Chris Ware, creator of the wildly successful series. This beautiful volume includes material never collected before.
Review
This is one mighty hullabaloo of a comic book.
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A harsh and somber story that'll stay with readers long after they finish the last page.
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Enough to immerse you in the hebdomadal rhythms of kat and mouse. Enough to make you read it twice and wonder how fur awa-a-y is the next volume. (LA Weekly, 24 May 2002, Bill Smith)
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A road map to Herriman's wistfully beautiful world. (Los Angeles, January 2003, Robert Ito)
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One of the most poetic and profound works of any popular art...one of the greatest portraits of love ever conceived. (Andrew Arnold, Time.com's #3 Best Comic of the Year 2002)
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There's poetry in Krazy's absurd phrases and magic in the image of a hero(ine?) so unselfconscious... (The Village Voice, 11 December 2002)
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With their usual innovation and flights of esoteric whimsy, the strips remain untouched by time, warranting discovery by each new generation. (Bookmunch, David Thompson)
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Widely regarded as one of the greatest examples of the comics as art. ...kollect this klassic komplete. (Library Journal, 1 November 2002)
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The brilliant surreal strips collected here tell of Krazy Kat's unrequited love for Ignatz Mouse. (Book Magazine's "Best Graphic Novels of 2002," November/December 2002)
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This is a great introduction to one of the best works of the 20th century. Let's hope more are on the way soon. (Sunday Patriot-News, 16 June 2002)
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An undertaking that all fans of comic art should support....Long may that brick fly. (San Antonio Current, 13 June 2002, John DeFore)
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Something magical happens and you find yourself still chuckling about it days later. (The Guardian [London], 16 June 2002)
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Harriman's vision shines through: Krazy Kat continues to be a beacon of sanity in a world gone irreversibly ga-ga. (Bizarre)
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Geez, this stuff is wonderful. (Tom De Haven, author of Funny Papers<.i> and Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies)
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The crisp reproduction on attractive, cream-colored paper is the most beautiful and vivid presentation of this material I've yet seen. (Comic Book Galaxy, Alan David Doane)
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Krazy Kat is as fresh now as when it first appeared and repays repeated reading. (Jeet Heer, Saturday Post, 12 April 2002)
Synopsis
This volume reprints what many consider to be Herriman's prime: his Sunday strips from 1925 and 1926, two full years of strips printed full-page in their original black and white, plus material never collected before.
Synopsis
A collection of reprints from the popular Sunday cartoon. The comic strip features three main characters: Krazy, the cluelesscat who is in love with Ignatz, the mouse; Ignatz who likes to throw bricks at Krazy, which the feline invariably interprets as expressions of love; and Officer Pupp who adores Krazy and is always looking to arrest Ignatz for his crimes. Krazy, meanwhile, always sees the arrests as just two good friends playing a game together. Herriman manipulates this formula over and over again into something fresh, each strip becoming a little funnier because of the readers' familiarity with the strange relationships among the chararcters.
About the Author
George Herriman (1880-1944), the creator of Krazy Kat, was born in New Orleans and lived most of his life in Los Angeles, California. He is considered by many to be the greatest strip cartoonist of all time.Bill Blackbeard, the founder-director of the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, is the world's foremost authority on early 20th Century American comic strips. As a freelance writer, Blackbeard wrote, edited or contributed to more than 200 books on cartoons and comic strips, including The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, 100 Years of Comic Strips, and the Krazy & Ignatz series.