Today is the birthday of George Herriman, the creator of the comic strip Krazy Kat.

 

Waterson, in his introduction to Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman: A Celebration wrote, "Nothing in Krazy Kat had a supporting role, least of all the Arizona desert setting. Mountains are striped. Mesas are spotted. Trees grow in pots. The horizon is a low wall the characters climb over. Panels are framed by theater curtains and stage spotlights. Monument Valley monoliths are drawn to look more like their names. The moon is a melon wedge, suspended upside down. And virtually every panel features a different landscape, even if the characters don’t move. The land is more than a backdrop. It is a character in the story, and the strip is “about” that landscape as much as it is about the animals who populated it."

 

 

Krazy Kat has been cited as an influence on countless other cartoonists including Bill Waterson (Calvin and Hobbes) and Patrick MacDonald (Mutts).  Charles Shultz (Peanuts) said that after seeing Krazy Kat strips, "it became my ambition to draw a strip that would have as much life and meaning and subtlety to it as Krazy Kat had."  Will Eisner (The Spirit, Contract With God, Comics and Sequential Art) also claimed to be drawn to cartooning because of Krazy Kat

 

Sources:

www.krazy.com

Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman: A Celebration by Craig Yoe (2011)

Mike Lynch Cartoons