The Krazy Kat cartoons, first published in newspapers in 1913, are among the very first examples of high art emerging out of the comic-strip format. On one level, Herriman simply drew endless variations on the same few themes, with funny-talking animals (“why, there’s a lotta l’il mices got bigga burdins than you”) getting bonks on the head. Krazy Kat loves Ignatz the mouse, who returns the affection by hurling bricks at his cranium. Krazy interprets this as love, which in some bizarre sense it is. Complicating this further is Offisa Pupp, a cop who constantly arrests Ignatz for assault and has his own unrequited feeling for Krazy, who may or may not be female. Out of this weird menage, Herriman forged worlds of surrealistic meaning, gaining fans as diverse as Walt Disney and E. E. Cummings. The 80-year-old humor found in these strips is something of an acquired taste nowadays, but if anything, the quaintness accentuates the sense of unreality. This collection, designed by Jimmy Corrigan artist Chris Ware, is part of an ongoing series of reissues that will see the strip through its 30-year run.
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