George Herriman

George Joseph Herriman III August 22 1880 April 25 1944 was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat 19131944 More influential than popular Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among those in the arts Gilbert Seldes article The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to a comic strip The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century Herrimans work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Elzie C Segar Will Eisner Charles M Schulz Robert Crumb Art Spiegelman Bill Watterson and Chris Ware Herriman was born in New Orleans Louisiana to mixedrace Creole parents and grew up in Los Angeles After he graduated from high school in 1897 he worked in the newspaper industry as an illustrator and engraver He moved on to cartooning and comic stripsa medium then in its infancyand drew a variety of strips until he introduced his most famous character Krazy Kat in his strip The Dingbat Family in 1910 A Krazy Kat daily strip began in 1913 and from 1916 the strip also appeared on Sundays It was noted for its poetic dialectheavy dialogue its fantastic shifting backgrounds and its bold experimental page layouts In the strips main motif and dynamic Ignatz Mouse pelted Krazy with bricks which the naïve androgynous Kat interpreted as symbols of love As the strip progressed a love triangle developed between Krazy Ignatz and Offisa Pupp Pupp made it his mission to prevent Ignatz from throwing bricks at Krazy or to jail him for having done so but his efforts were perpetually impeded because Krazy wished to be struck by Ignatzs bricks Herriman lived most of his life in Los Angeles but made frequent trips to the Navajo deserts in the Southwestern United States He was drawn to the landscapes of Monument Valley and the Enchanted Mesa and made Coconino County the location of his Krazy Kat strips His artwork made much use of Navajo and Mexican themes and motifs against shifting desert backgrounds He was a prolific cartoonist who produced a large number of strips and illustrated Don Marquiss books of poetry about Archy and Mehitabel an alley cat and a cockroach Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was a proponent of Herriman and gave him a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate which guaranteed Herriman a comfortable living and an outlet for his work despite its lack of popularity Description above from the Wikipedia article George Herriman licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia