Forty Years Ago – and Four Decades After Its Creator’s Death – ‘Krazy Kat’ Was Still the Comic Strip of the Moment – The Village Voice
Still Krazy After All These Years
By J. Hoberman
Originally published: June 3, 1986
Of all classic comic strips, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat was the most brilliantly formulaic. For over 30 years, the daily installment climaxed more often than not with the strip’s eponymous star taking a well-aimed brick on the head. You might call it a “riff” if you were inclined to be musical.
Krazy Kat — which ended as a strip during World War II and has now been anthologized for the first time in decades by the team of Patrick McDonnell, Karen O’Connell, and Georgia Riley de Havenon — is based on an eternal triangle, a setup that confounds conventional animal (if not necessarily human) behavior. Kat loves mouse and is, in turn, adored by dog — thus establishing an equilibrium based on longstanding obsession and mutual misunderstanding.
