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.
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From Publishers Weekly
In 1999, the Comics Journal named Herriman's Krazy Kat the greatest comic strip of the 20th century. It's never been too well known (in the course of its 30-year run, it often survived only because of William Randolph Hearst's support), but cartoonists more or less agree it's a masterpiece. The premise couldn't be simpler: Krazy Kat loves Ignatz Mouse, who rejects the Kat's affections by throwing a brick at him? her? Krazy is both and neither whereupon Offisa Pupp arrests Ignatz. This was the plot of nearly every episode, but the beauty was in the variations Herriman could work on it and in his delirious sense of style. The primal comedy played out in thousands of ways, drawn with an incomparable design sense against a gorgeously stylized backdrop of the American Southwest and delivered with Herriman's hilarious dialogue half invented, half quasi-Joycean wordplay ("Ooy-yooy-yooy wot a goldish oak finish like a swell mihoginny piyenna l'il dusky dahlink!!!"). This first in a new series of reprints (designed by Chris Ware and edited by Bill Blackbeard) picks up where the series published by Eclipse Books left off 10 years ago; it'll cover two years in each volume. This 1925-1926 collection shows how Herriman began to stretch out, opening up his layouts and experimenting with storytelling technique and the basic conventions of the comic strip itself.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A collection of reprints from the popular Sunday cartoon. The comic strip features three main characters: Krazy, the clueless cat 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 being 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 readers' familiarity with the strange relationships among the characters. The irregular lettering and spelling, as well as the roughness of the drawing, while at first off-putting, somehow support the madcap oddness. The black-and-white cartoons are laid out in their original newspaper format, one to a page, on high-quality paper. "Krazy Kat" is one of the few early strips still as enjoyable now as when it was written, and plays an important role in the history of the humorous newspaper comics. A must-read for future cartoonists, as well as anyone who simply needs a good laugh.
Paul Brink, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Paul Brink, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Every man, woman, and child should own a complete set of George Herriman's Krazy Kat, but that's currently impossible cos so much of it is out of print (or has never been reprinted). Thanks for getting this thing started again, Fantagraphics, and hopefully you'll get the financial support to see this thing through.
If you know nothing of Krazy and Ignatz, I can only invite you to slide into their surreal world. Words won't do it justice. Krazy is yin, Ignatz is yang. You figure it out.
By ewomack
Wow. There is justice in the world. After Eclipse stopped their "Kompleat Krazy Kat" series I feared that no publisher would dare take up the cause for a loooooooong time. I'm having spasms of joy over the continuation of the series. There was indeed no comic (even the best ones) that came close to the subtlety, detail, and substance of Krazy Kat. The irreconcilable love triangle between Krazy, Ignatz, and Offica Pupp provided enough material for decades of brutally good material. These volumes also carry on Eclipse's tradition of good and helpful notes at the book's end to elucidate anachronisms that will inevitably arise in nearly anything approaching a century in age.
More good news is Fantagraphic's pledge (near the end of this book) that once they complete the Krazy Kat cycle (kompleat with the kompleat Kolor Komiks in full Kolor), they will go back and republish the years covered by the Eclipse volumes! I was never able to find all 9 volumes, and those that appear on E-bay tend to get VERY pricey ...
This is good news for all of the Kat's devoted followers. May Fantagraphics march on.
By Chris
If you have never read George Herriman's masterpiece--one of the few comic strips I would label as such, and it's creator: a genius--I would NOT suggest this one. Buy "Krazy Kat: the komic art of George Herriman" instead. I say this only because Mr. Herriman's style changes so dramatically throughout his tenure on Krazy Kat, that this can only give you a very incomplete impression of his work and, truthfully, I can't say very much for this particular impression. It is not George's fault, either. At this time a certain visual structure was imposed on his work by William Randolph Hearst--a fan himself of our author/cartoonist--that limits the VISUAL creativity of the strip. Some critics have suggested that this period is where the SOUL of the Krazy Kat strip was first truly refined; where the relationship between Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pupp begins to be fully realized. That may be. The writing is as good as it ever was. But the uniformity of the art and visual structure--all panels are of uniform size, shape, and number (though not at the very beginning of the book)--make the material seem redundant. Especially when reading one after the other in the same sitting.
I love this strip and I respect George Herriman as an artist. If you already have a taste for Krazy Kat--and are longing for more material to be continuously reprinted (as I am)--this is a purchase you should be making without me telling you. Otherwise, you had better get a taste for this particular work before you delve into this chapter of its development. Or try back in a book or two.
I love this strip and I respect George Herriman as an artist. If you already have a taste for Krazy Kat--and are longing for more material to be continuously reprinted (as I am)--this is a purchase you should be making without me telling you. Otherwise, you had better get a taste for this particular work before you delve into this chapter of its development. Or try back in a book or two.
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4.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding !
Thank god Fantagraphics took this on! All of us Krazy fans had lost hope when the previous reprint went under. (especially if you hadn't heard of it until after it was over. Read more
Published on Jun 24 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
at last these are starting to reappear!
it has been nearly a decade since the earlier attempts to collect (at least) the sunday strips collapsed, but now some brave fools are again attempting to assemble a complete... Read more
Published on Jun 6 2002 by Jonathan Lapin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Necessary for All Civilized Persons, and Others Too
As a former resident of Coconino County, Arizona (a lovely region, though I was never able to drag the Mittens down from Monument Valley to dance around my neighborhood, as Krazy... Read more
Published on May 19 2002 by Sand Flea Press
5.0 out of 5 stars
To give this book only five stars is to perform a disservice
Why? Because we need Krazy Kat soliloquizing on the merits of a cabbage and a rose. We need Herriman's knifework that could erect spindly plants and formidable mountain monuments... Read more
Published on April 28 2002 by M. Chmielecki
5.0 out of 5 stars
"THE BEST WOT IS--BLLLVE ME!"
Readers of the Eclipse Krazy Kat reprint series (which died out in the early nineties after collecting nine years' worth of KK Sunday pages) will only need to know that this book... Read more
Published on April 24 2002 by Tim Idsole
5.0 out of 5 stars
five stars is not enough; this needs a constellation
I first encountered Krazy Kat as a twelve-year old, years, even, before the Eclipse collections started coming out. (This series picks up where Eclipse left off). Read more
Published on April 11 2002
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