Comic book series : Krazy & Ignatz

George Herriman integrated full spectacular color into Krazy Kat in June, 1935. The gorgeous evolution continues in our second color volume, which includes the Sunday strips from all of 1937 and 1938. The color format opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard and designer Chris Ware's files. Krazy Kat is a love story, focusing on the relationships of its three main characters. Each of the characters was ignorant of the others' true motivations, and this simple structure allowed Herriman to build entire worlds of meaning into the actions, building thematic depth and sweeping his readers up by the looping verbal rhythms of Krazy & Co.'s unique dialogue. Most of these strips in this volume have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 70 years ago. With a full 104 Sunday pages this time around, this particular book is jam packed with little room for extras, but we did squeeze in a half-dozen or so pages' worth of never-before-seen Herriman memorabilia (all in color), including a spectacular full-color New Year's card illustration done for a friend.

"The Krazy & Ignatz books have been a godsend to comics fans... Each book is bizarre, sweetly amusing, and blissfully continuity-free." – "The Best Comics of the '00s: The Archives," The A.V. Club

"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

"After all these decades, Krazy Kat remains a joyous, life-enhancing reading experience. To this reprint, Fantagraphics has added a few marvelous twists... Krazy Kat remains as good a comic as there ever was, and this beautifully produced book is a must for any reader interested in great art." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"One could argue the claim, confidently, persuasively, and with an all-but-inexhaustible store of ever-fresh evidence, that George Herriman was one of the very great artists, in any medium, of the 20th century." – Michael Chabon