A study in the history of cartooning brings out the likes of Peanuts, Pogo, Dennis the Menace and the Laurel and Hardy like team of Krazy and Ignatz. The comic strip created by George Herriman appeared in U.S. newspapers between 1913 and 1944. The strip focuses on the curious "love" triangle between its title character, Krazy, a carefree and innocent cat of indeterminate gender (referred to as both male and female), her antagonist Ignatz Mouse, and the protective police dog, Officer Bull Pupp. Krazy nurses an unrequited love for the mouse, but Ignatz despises her and constantly schemes to throw a brick at her head; which Krazy takes as a sign of affection. Officer Pupp, as Coconino County's administrator of law and order, makes it his unwavering mission to interfere with Ignatz's brick-tossing plans and lock the mouse in the county jail.
It was the detailed characterization, combined with Herriman's visual and verbal creativity, that made Krazy Kat one of the first comics to be widely praised by intellectuals and treated as serious art. Gilbert Seldes, a noted art critic of the time, wrote in 1924, calling it "the most amusing and fantastic and satisfactory work of art produced in America today." Famed poet E. E. Cummings, as another Herriman admirer, wrote the introduction to the first collection of the strip in book form. In more recent years, many modern cartoonists have cited Krazy Kat as a major influence, including Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson who deserves his own article.
Studying the history of graphic art and cartooning is important in order to learn the true history of story telling in its true form. So many talents throughout history deserve to be resurrected. Today's reader, for the most part, is ignorant of the treasures buried in the archives of old newspapers and books. Graphic novels are not a new art form and have their roots firmly planted in the Sunday newspapers.
