George Herriman

George Joseph Herriman III was born on August 22, 1880, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died on April 25, 1944. He is best known for creating the newspaper comic strip *Krazy Kat*, which ran from 1913 until his death. Herriman grew up in Los Angeles after his mixed-race Creole family moved there, and he entered the newspaper business as an illustrator and engraver after high school. He drew several comic strips before introducing the character of Krazy Kat in 1910 within *The Dingbat Family*; the standalone daily strip began in 1913, with a Sunday page added in 1916. The strip’s central dynamic involved Ignatz Mouse throwing bricks at the naive, androgynous Krazy, who interpreted them as love tokens, while Offisa Pupp tried—and usually failed—to stop Ignatz. Herriman’s work was noted for its poetic, dialect-heavy dialogue, shifting desert backdrops, and experimental page layouts. He set *Krazy Kat* in Coconino County, inspired by the Navajo deserts of the Southwest, where he traveled frequently. Though never a mass hit, the strip earned a devoted following among artists and intellectuals; Gilbert Seldes wrote an early critical appreciation, and *The Comics Journal* later ranked it the greatest comic of the 20th century. Herriman also illustrated Don Marquis’s *archy and mehitabel* books. William Randolph Hearst gave him a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate. His influence has been acknowledged by cartoonists from Elzie Segar to Bill Watterson and Chris Ware.