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As Fantagraphics’ ambitious plan to reprint every single Sunday Krazy Kat page created by George Herriman for close to three decades (this being the penultimate book) careens toward the finish line, this volume features another three years’ worth of Sunday strips — over 150 little masterpieces by the greatest cartoonist of all time, featuring the greatest comic-strip love triangle of all time: “kat,” “mice” and “pupp.” Each page is a hilarious, poetic masterpiece crackling with verbal wit and graphic brilliance. Those were the days…!

In the introductory essay, editor Bill Blackbeard chronicles Krazy Kat’s ascent from its earliest days as a tiny pendant for Herriman’s earlier strips The Dingbat Family and The Family Upstairs to its own full feature. A second major article in this volume is Bob Callahan’s “Geo. Herriman’s Los Angeles,” a fascinating look at Herriman’s pre-Krazy Kat days as a journalist/illustrator, covering such things as a Mexican bullfight (Herriman was appalled), the opening of a new “bums’ jail” (Herriman’s sympathies were clearly with the vagrants), and UFO sightings — all accompanied by Herriman’s virtuoso cartoons, of course.

As usual, the cover is designed by Chris Ware, featuring a striking two-color look that will set this latest volume apart from the previous eleven.

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"Comics’ most enigmatic and enduring triangle — lovesick mooncalf Krazy Kat, sardonic Ignatz Mouse, and steadfast suitor Offissa Pupp — return in three years’ worth of full-page Sunday strips from early in Krazy Kat’s three-decade run. Although nearly a century has elapsed since these episodes first saw print, nothing that’s appeared on newspaper comics pages in the intervening years has approached their graphic and linguistic sophistication, let alone their brazenly idiosyncratic singularity. The bounty of Herriman’s fanciful masterwork is enhanced by a pair of informative supplemental essays and Chris Ware’s strikingly stark cover design." – Gordon Flagg, Booklist

Praise for Krazy Kat and the Krazy & Ignatz series:

“Endlessly perplexing, energetic, deep, and playful.” – Sarah Boxer, The New York Review of Books

"In truth, nothing less needs to be propped up on the ivory stilts of 'fine art' than Krazy Kat. On a daily basis, in a medium designed to provide simple diversion, Herriman went about his business unpretentiously, seemingly effortlessly, leaving an American masterpiece in his wake." – San Francisco Chronicle

"Herriman's panels convey an irrepressible sense of movement and incorporate distinctly surreal touches, such as the thronged mushrooms that 'rise to feast in florid fungushood,' blooming like umbrellas under a cheese-slice moon." – The New Yorker

"This beautifully produced series is a must for any reader interested in great art." – Publishers Weekly

"George Herriman was one of the very great artists, in any medium, of the 20th century." – Michael Chabon

"Mr. Herriman's scratchy, elastic line revolutionized the art of comics, as did his canny psychologizing." – The New York Times

"Don't read 'Krazy Kat' because it's good for you. Read it because it is you, an American being, immigrant-infused, with a light-hearted sense of infinite promise. Herriman's art, word and line, is so damn deep, so damn wonderful and so damnably us." – Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Herriman was one of those godsent popular artists like Chaplin, Armstrong, Hitchcock, and Dylan, whose low art makes mincemeat of the high.” – Tom DeHaven

You may also be interested in:

The Kat Who Walked in Beauty [2nd Printing] $29.95 Add to Cart

Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1926: There Is a Heppy Lend Fur Fur A-Waay $19.95 Add to Cart

Krazy & Ignatz 1922-1924: At Last My Drim of Love Has Come True $24.99 Add to Cart

Krazy & Ignatz: The Complete Sunday Strips 1916-1924 $95.00 Add to Cart