Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1926: "There is a Heppy Land Furfur A-waay" (Krazy Kat) (Paperback)

~ George Herriman (Author)
Key Phrases: Kirazy Kat, The Gold Rush, George Herriman

Editorial Reviews

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.

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; illustrated edition edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560973862
• ISBN-13: 978-1560973867
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #543,864 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 1 in The Krazy & Ignatz Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally! But maybe NOT for new readers..., July 2, 2002

By	Chris (Illinois) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The heppy land is not too furfur a-waay..., December 4, 2002

By	ewomack "ewomack" (MN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "THE BEST WOT IS--BLLLVE ME!", April 24, 2002

By	Tim Idsole (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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 picks up where those left off, and that the new design is consistent with the Eclipse volumes, though it incorporates a number of improvements (the off-white, better quality paper, and the inclusion of the original titles atop the strips, for example). More great material, a bargain price, no reason to hesitate over this one. Of course it merits "five stars," or fifty.

For those who are not familiar with Krazy Kat--a larger group, alas--there isn't room here for the superlatives that this strip inspires, let alone for an explanation of the many facets of the work. When you first read it, you may be puzzled at all the praise heaped on this thing--this is because so much of the effect of KK is cumulative. In my experience, it is the richest example of variations-on-a-theme in all of art, regardless of medium. (And there are hundreds of Krazy Kat strips that I've never seen!)

The best introduction to Herriman remains the the bio by McDonnell, et al, which samples the breadth of his work. But there's much to be said for reading a group of strips sequentially.

The 1925-26 Sunday strips collected here show Herriman in fine form, even though his inventive page design is straightjacked much of the time. Herriman's publisher W.R. Hearst imposed a strict format on Herriman from mid-1925-29, in an effort to promote the strip (this is explained in the book). But Herriman manages to make the best of the restrictions, and Herriman's best is fine indeed.

It is scandalous that this material has remained unavailable for so long. Kudos to Fantagraphics, and lucky for all of us that Herriman's glorious work is again becoming available.

If there's anything I could add that would make my recommendation more emphatic, consider it said.