Customer Reviews

Krazy & Ignatz 1935-1936: "A Wild Warmth of Chromatic Gravy" (Krazy Kat)

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Fantagraphics has proven its fortitude yet again. With rumors lingering of financial problems and a release date that seemed to stretch out for months this volume finally appeared (the "first printing date" inside says "July 2005" but the volume didn't actually see release until early November) . Add to that, this volume presents Krazy Kat completely in Krazy Kolor. The strip ran in color from 1935 until 1944, its final year. Sadly, as the introduction says, only two newspapers carried the strip through the entire last leg of its journey. Suprisingly these strips still exist. That they do at all demonstrates the dedication of the strip's fans and historians. And this volume shows Fantagraphics dedication Q.E.D. to one of the best comic strips ever produced.

Krazy Kat's popularity declined as the years progressed, but the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst made sure it continued (he at least had great taste in comics). Regardless, the strip's quality seemed to increas through the color years. It became more surreal, more esoteric, even more beautiful to look at (when the colors came out right, at least), and even more satisfying intellectually. Which, of course, probably accounts for the plummeting circulation. In fact, without Hearst's support the strip probably would have disappeared altogether sometime in the 1930s. Editors apparently hated it. Some have even claimed that certain editors tried to secretly cut the strip from their papers only to receive a personal verbal lashing from Hearst himself. So we have Hearst, who imbued certain other questionable qualities, to thank for the existence of this volume.

Here the fun continues but in color. Everything a fan expects sits between these well-designed covers. Ignatz mouse continues to give in to his id by tossing bricks at Krazy. And Krazy continues to cherish each skull beaning. Offisa Pupp continues to keep order with sanctions against Ignatz that take the form of prison (the famous jail begins to appear more and more at this point in the strip's history; it becomes almost ubiquitous during its final decade). The bittersweet, bizarre, and poetic love triangle at the heart of the strip continues interminably as in the previous volumes. Most of the strips defy description. The color adds a new dimension. Following five volumes of black and white (fourteen including the defunct Eclipse series) this volume feels a little like the moment Dorothy opens the door to Munchkin Land in "The Wizard of Oz" and exposes a dazzling world of color.

Not only that, this volume includes a fascinating essay on a flaming controversy: the racial background of Krazy Kat's creator, George Herriman. Historians have determined that Herriman had African American ancestry, but the extent that he actually identified with the African American culture at the time remains hotly debated. The essay explores this idea in depth. Anyone interested in this intriguing topic should definitely read this piece. In addition to the strips and the essay the book also contains reproductions of watercolored sketches by Herriman, examples of early strips, pictures of Herriman (without his hat!), pictures of Krazy Kat toys from the era (lovingly stuffed with sawdust), and an insert that includes "corrected" reconstructions of strips from previous volumes.

All in all, Fantagraphics has pulled off another triumph with this volume. The addition of color must have presented numerous additional challenges, but they obviously made it through them. So, just like we have Hearst to thank for the continuation of Krazy Kat, we have Fantagraphics to thank for preserving this amazing work of comic art in mass form.

Many comic strips rely a lot on variations on a theme. The classic example would be Peanuts. There were dozens of Peanuts strips that involved Charlie Brown trying (and failing) to kick a ball that Lucy was holding. Even though the idea was the same in each, the execution differed from strip to strip. Years earlier, the same could have been said about Krazy Kat; how many different ways can a mouse attempt to hit a cat with a brick? As it turns out, many ways, each interesting in its own way.

For those unfamiliar with Krazy Kat, the three main characters in the strip are Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse and Officer Pupp. Krazy loves Ignatz, who in turn, dislikes Krazy. In fact, Ignatz is constantly beaning Krazy in the head with a brick, an act that Krazy interprets as one of affection. Meanwhile, Officer Pupp loves Krazy and hates Ignatz, constantly arresting the mouse for assault. (While Ignatz and Pupp are definitely male - Ignatz is even married with children - Krazy's gender is much more indeterminate, occasionally referred to as male, sometimes female, but usually left completely uncertain. Personally, I think of Krazy as male, but mainly so I am consistent in what pronoun to use.) Of course, just as not every Peanuts strip involved kicking a football, not every Krazy Kat strip involves Ignatz's efforts to obtain a brick and throwing it at Krazy, but usually the idea is at least lurking in the background.

What makes Krazy Kat special? It's hard to describe exactly. It is certainly different from any comic strip around nowadays: it has much less of an emphasis on punchline humor and instead relies on pure absurdity (or should I say "kraziness"). Even in its time, Krazy Kat was mainly successful due to the patronage of William Hearst, as well as the praise of such well-known figures as e.e. cummings and Walt Disney.

This particular volume covers the Sunday strips of the latter part of 1935 and all of 1936, the first period in which Krazy Kat was in color. Despite some obvious errors by the original publishers seventy years ago - such as times when Ignatz is blue or green - Krazy Kat works as well in color as in black-and-white. There are supplemental materials as well, most notably an essay on Krazy Kat's creator, George Herriman, the controversies regarding his racial background and how it was reflected in his work. Although interesting, you can skip this stuff if you want and go straight to the comics: Krazy Kat is kompletely kaptivating!

Krazy Ignatz is the sixth volume of the Krazy Kat reprint series - but it's the first volume to appear in full color, representing the comic strip's color appearance in June 1935 after being a black-and-white Sunday strip. The new color format has been digitally cleaned for sharp appearance - better than the original strips - and harvests a wealth of Krazy Kat and non-Kat materials from Herriman archives from 1935-36. Krazy Ignatz is a 'must' for any KK fan.

It's probable that anyone considering the purchase of this book is already familiar with Krazy Kat, but just in case...

The entire strip is based on a love triangle, with a gender-ambiguous cat (Krazy) that is in love with a mouse (Ignatz) who is irritated by the cat and throws bricks at his/her/its noggin. The cat takes the bricks as a sign of love, however. A dog (Offisa Pupp) is in love with Krazy and tries to protect him-her-it from the mouse and the bricks, frequently jailing the mouse.

The strip has a fairly small cast of characters, mostly animal, and the goings on take place in front of ever-shifting landscapes. The effect is surreal: from one panel to the next, two characters could be talking without much change in their positions and posture, yet the background changes completely. The art is probably a love it or hate it proposition. It is scratchy and might resist some readers' esthetic sense. On the other hand, I know many people who automatically exclaim "I love Krazy Kat!" and the art is part and parcel of their appreciation. At any rate, the price of this full-color book is low enough to take a risk. Personally, I love the art: Herriman conveys surprise, movement, force and speed better than most or all of the comics masters, including Caniff, the superhero artists, Uderzo and possibly Hergé, with an apparent ease and simplicity of line.

Complementing the art is a patois (especially Krazy's) that is, at times, sheer poetry. The title of the book is drawn from an utterance within. There are deeper messages, such as the law of the excluded middle, or some gentle jabs at our lack of color blindness or cultural references that can slip by us because they are from an era now 70 years old.

There are two introductions. One of them, "The Kolors of Krazy Kat" on Herriman's complex ethnicity, is particularly apt in this, the book of the strip's first color Sundays. The other is by a fellow named Bill Blackbeard, whose efforts have saved portions of this and other strips from oblivion and in some cases from outright destruction. His work has rescued an important part of our cultural heritage.

In addition to the introductions, there are photographs as well as reproductions of beautiful Herriman water colors featuring his characters and backgrounds. The book was put together very conscientiously - even lovingly.

Krazy and Ignatz are unique in the history of the comics and highlight the Golden Age when "Little Nemo," "Maggie and Jiggs," and "The Yellow Kid" were right up there with this strip, George Harriman's salute to wit, whimsy, and the English language. Did I mention Jewish and Italian dialects from New York City? Anyhow, language and imagination all worked together in a desert landscape with Turner skies above and some of the most marveous comic characters walking the sands below. Who else but Herriman could do a daily comic--for years--about a cat with a bow around its neck, a cat that was either male or female depending on what happened in the life of the reader that day, a cat in love with a mouse whose only aim in life was to bean the cat's head with a brick, then to be arrested by Officer Pup! It's the stuff that dreams are made of but, unfortunately, those dreams have faded away.

The 1935-36 season of KRAZY KAT is worthy of special attention, particularly due to its admittedly late inclusion of color on the Sunday-pages at this point. The reasons as to why the strip had been printed exclusively in black-and-white even on Sundays for so long are said to be economical, which is curious; by the beginning of the 1930's, even moderately popular strips (such as POLLY AND HER PALS) were being treated with full-scale color on the last day of each week. This neglection had not served as much of a disadvantage to an artist like George Herriman, however, whose ability to evoke particular moods and atmospheres through a masterful use of black and white areas in his work made him stand out on the funny-pages nevertheless. In fact, it can be argued that the exclusion of color in favor of pure black-and-white was an essential part of Herriman's design, and this aspect was doomed to disappear when, all of a sudden, Coconino County was transformed into a place of bright colors. However, once again Herriman proved his extreme competence of his medium by letting his art and characters sink in with the colors, rather than viewing their inclusion as a fancy addition. The new Coconino County is delicate to look at, and appears the exact way we would have expected it to do in colors prior to their entrance.

In a less superficial sense, Coconino County undergoes yet another change during this season. On the very first Sunday-page in color, dated June 1st 1935, Herriman introduces a new character, whose name reveals his nature; "The Growler" is a bandit in lack of anything that may resemble conscience or dignity. He is possibly the most one-dimensional recurring character that Herriman has inhabitated his universe with, and as such gives the artist several opportunities for new ideas. Although Ignatz is and will forever remain a cynical and unsentimental, perhaps even sadistic runt of a mouse, he does look upon Offisah Pupp as a threat, occasionally able to escape the law only through manipulation or lying. The Growler, by contrast, cold-bloodedly knocks Pupp uncounscious whenever he may feel like it, and Pupp is unable to do anything about the situation. This adds yet another tragic dimension to the complex universe of KRAZY KAT; Pupp is proven to be incompetent and a coward. We have always known this to be the case, but never before has it been demonstrated so bluntly, in complete lack of mercy. The tiny spot of respect we may have felt for him in the first place is here reduced to zero.

Other than these two new elements, one aestethical and one rather psychological, Coconino County remains pretty much the same. Herriman still surprises by being able to do fresh, unexpected variations of the strip's central theme; that of a mouse throwing bricks at a kat, who interprets this as signs of love, and a dog kop who tries to protect the kat out of love. No other comic strip artist to my knowledge has been able to make the humor of a strip so integral with its universe; Herriman provides such a beautiful flow of spontainety and unpredictability in KRAZY KAT that its seemingly limited concept never becomes limited. I would like to mention some favorites from this volume, such as the strip where Offisah Pupp asks an ostrich for help in order to get sinful Ignatz down from a pole, but in my words these strips would just sound odd at best...check it out for yourself, and enjoy. Or Ignatz'll throw a brick!!