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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN num: 9781560975076
ISBN number: 1560975075
Label: Fantagraphics Books
Manufacturer: Fantagraphics Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 120
Printing Date: 2002-12
Publishing house: Fantagraphics Books
Sale Popularity Level: 169673
Studio: Fantagraphics Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The greatest comic strip of all-time.
In a 1999 special issue, The Comics Journal named George Herriman's Krazy Kat as 'the greatest comic strip of the 20th Century.' In 2002, Fantagraphics embarked on a publishing plan to reintroduce the strip to a public that has largely never seen it: this volume is the second of a long-term plan to chronologically reprint strips from the prime of Herriman's career, most of which have not seen print since originally running in newspapers 75 years ago. Each volume is edited by the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum's Bill Blackbeard, the world's foremost authority on early 20th Century American comic strips, and designed by Jimmy Corrigan author Chris Ware. In addition to the 104 full-page black-and-white Sunday strips from 1927 and 1928 (Herriman did not use colour until 1935), the book includes an introduction by Blackbeard and reproductions of rare Herriman ephemera from Ware's own extensive collection, as well as annotations and other notes by Ware and Blackbeard.
Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Krazy Kat adored Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz Mouse just tolerated Krazy Kat, except for recurrent onsets of targeting tumescence, which found expression in the fast delivery of bricks to Krazy's cranium. Offisa Pup loved Krazy and sought to protect 'her' (Herriman always maintained that Krazy was genderless) by throwing Ignatz in jail. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue. As Lingua Franca once wrote, 'Herriman was a rare artist who bridges the gap between high and low culture. His surrealistic strip was admired by popular entertainers like Walt Disney and Frank Capra yet also had a highbrow fan club that included E. E. Cummings, Willem de Kooning, and Umberto Eco.'
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
The best thing ever to hit the eyes is the Krazy Kat entourage a la George Herriman. With the most surrealistic spelling and the most endearing characters in a love triangle (Krazy, Ignatz, and Offisa Pupp), one can find relief from the drabness and the pressures of life. (Was that a brick that just went by?)
Rated by buyers -
Herriman's colour work was indeed wonderful, but as the previous correspondent notes, for two thirds of its run the Sunday KRAZY KAT was in fact grey and white, so we've been publishing it in that format.
Beginning in mid-2005, after having wrapped up the grey and white period with KRAZY + IGNATZ 1933-1934 (which will contain some of the most difficult-to-find and almost-never-reprinted years) we will be releasing the five volumes containing Herriman's colour years, starting with KRAZY + IGNATZ 1935-1936 -- in full color.
Rated by buyers -
Regarding the review below: Sunday Krazy Kat strips were not printed in colour until 1934, so the strips in this volume (which covers the period from 1927 to 1928) are presented as they were originally published. While there are many pre-1934 strips that were hand-colored by Herriman, they were intended to be personal gifts to fellow cartoonists and not for publication.
Rated by buyers -
Comics do not get much better than Krazy Kat. These new editions have brought me out of mourning for the Eclipse series (the single volumes of which sometimes go for $100+ on e-bay). Plus, these are great looking books and each one is filled with extra info and photographs in the introduction and some cool tidbit in the back (this one has a picture of a wooden Ignatz doll complete with box from the 1920s).
Krazy Kat can be classified as art, but hopefully it won't be classified TOO MUCH as art, because it can be appreciated on many levels as well as an artistic one. Krazy's worst fate would be to end up as solely a museum piece for aficionados. Krazy doesn't belong in a museum, he/she belongs in books; which is what makes this series so great. I just wish they could print all of them at once.
Krazy Kat works by means of the tension of 3 forces: innocence, evil, and justice. Krazy is the ultimate innocent who, when Offissa Pup pummels Ignatz with his club, merely says "Those two play so well togedda." Ignatz is evil and maybe obsession. His grand purpose in life is to "bean" Krazy with bricks. He sometimes goes to Rube Goldberg extremes to succeed. Offissa Pup is justice which is sometimes just, sometimes political, sometimes personal. In an old daily strip, Offissa Pup grabs Ignatz and says "To the jail, viper!" When Ignatz replies "Why?" Offissa Pup only says "Because it gives me pleasure." Things get more complex because Krazy loves Ignatz and Offissa Pup often insinuates that he loves Krazy. A futile love triangle and battle of good, evil, and justice gets mixed up in a strange salad.
It is simply one of the best comics ever produced.
Rated by buyers -
Conceptually, Krazy Kat was so simple -- a cat, a mouse, and a dog apparently caught in a bizarre sort of eternal love/hate triangle. George Herriman's art and writing not only managed to elevate this seemingly limited idea for a comic strip far beyond most of its early 20th-century peers, but to place it in the category of art: a weirdly funny, endlessly imaginative, and timeless masterpiece.
Fantagraphics have done an excellent job of reproduction and annotation. The larger format allows you to fully enjoy Herriman's minimalist style, while laughing at the strip's fractured English and visual gags. Chris Ware's cover art for both volumes released so far in this series has also been a real treat, although I personally preferred the cover for the very first volume.
Krazy Kat can be enjoyed on several levels, but the editors have made certain you can both appreciate the artistic aspects of the strip and have just plain fun reading it. I am also coming to understand Herriman's significant influence on such later masters as Johnny Hart and Charles Schulz.
Get in on the ground floor (or at most the second floor) of what will be one of the most important reprint series ever, and seek out the very first volume.
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