Commentary on George Herriman's "Krazy Kat"

Though I wasn't able to find a whole book of Herriman's comics online, I was able to find quite a few assorted comic strips that gave me a pretty good idea of what the comics are like. The tiny lines and dated dialogue made it difficult to understand at first, but the more I read the more I fell in love with these silly creatures.

I was raised on newspaper comics. I loved digging through sheafs of paper to find those wonderful pictures with words when I was a kid, and that love for periodically-released strips was reignited with my first forays into webcomics. Because of this I feel an overpowering nostalgia while reading any comic that follows similar formulas (a self-contained punchline within a single page), even if the specific comic's heyday was far before my time and I had never seen it at all as a child.

That nostalgia hit me hard when I started reading Krazy Kat. There's something beautifully moody and sentimental about Herriman's strips. The environments in each little panel are expanded into great open spaces with beautiful crosshatched gradients that contrast pleasingly with the childish character designs, and the broken lines convey an innocent playfulness befitting of the characters, especially the simple and affectionate Krazy.

Krazy and Ignatz are a clear influence for Tom and Jerry, but there's a noticeable difference in tone between the two pairs. The boundless energy and explosive emotion of the cartoon isn't present in Krazy Kat, which highlights its slapstick through its gentle presentation. Additionally, the conflict is a one-sided infatuation rather than a mutual hatred, which gives the story a wistful cast that's surprisingly true to life. Those itty bitty faces don't have much capacity for change in expression, but through situational context, dialogue, and expressive scenery, Herriman somehow creates a world of beautiful depth just using these tiny icons. I've seen lots of people praising other comics (such as Calvin & Hobbes) for the same reason, and it's delightful to discover what was likely one of the biggest inspirations for many of those masterworks.