Krazy and Ignatz, 1933-1934: Necromancy by the Blue Bean Bush

This is the fifth in a series reprinting George Herriman’s early 20th Century comic strip masterpiece. Most of these strips have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago. Each volume is edited by the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum’s Bill Blackbeard. Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934 will be a hot-baked brickbat of a volume, adance with nearly two full years of the Sunday Krazy Kat (Herriman did not use color until 1935), snug between multiple pages of Herriman extras, not the least of which include an introduction by Blackbeard, a new “Debaffler” page, and a stunning layout front and back and throughout by the inimitable Chris Ware! 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 gender-less) 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.