KRAZY KAT

April 28, 2003 3:40 AM

There is a heppy lend, fur, fur a-wa-a-ay - Sure as moons is cheeses
posted by y2karl (28 comments total)

I'm gonna check some out...but a link per letter???

Purr-lease!!!!
posted by mattr at 3:57 AM on April 28, 2003

Tamim did it first.
posted by y2karl at 4:06 AM on April 28, 2003

I'm calling foul. The title fields could have fit at least another paragraph in each.

(I can't believe you linked the frickin comma.)
posted by KnitWit at 4:50 AM on April 28, 2003

You really are a mentalist.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:58 AM on April 28, 2003

OK, OK...so the link is pretty wacky. But, the CONTENT! LOOK AT THE CONTENT, PEOPLE!! It's Krazy Kat...some of the most intelligently written, beautifully illustrated comic strips of the early 20th century.

Good Lord, thank you, y2karl.
posted by 40 Watt at 5:08 AM on April 28, 2003

[this is very good]
posted by stx23 at 5:13 AM on April 28, 2003

I am personally impressed by the fact that the post was made without any errors! I think this post should be nominated for a Moscar for Technical Achievement. (Moscar = MeFi Oscar)

In addition to the posting skills, it was very fun!
posted by Odi et Amo at 5:23 AM on April 28, 2003

Although I've tried and tried, I must confess that just I don't get Krazy Kat at all. Same goes for Pogo and Li'l Abner. Guess I was just more of a Dick Tracy/Flash Gordon kind of kid.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:52 AM on April 28, 2003

I've tried too but it's as greek to me as the Yellow Kid, although stylistically well illustrated.
posted by hama7 at 6:16 AM on April 28, 2003

Lordy, look at the source.
posted by gottabefunky at 6:41 AM on April 28, 2003

What, no DHTML rollovers? You're slipping, y2karl.
posted by briank at 6:48 AM on April 28, 2003

Odi et Ami: as y2karl said, that Moscar should be given to Tamim before anyone else =)

On preview: what briank said ;)
posted by XiBe at 6:54 AM on April 28, 2003

Thanks, y2karl! I haven't followed every letter, so you may have linked this--but it's worth pointing that George Herriman also did the brilliant original illustrations of Don Marquis' Archy and Mehitabel. There's also some evidence that he was a man of African ancestry "passing as white". It would explain the outsider feel to his work, which is what I love about it.
posted by SealWyf at 7:18 AM on April 28, 2003 [1 favorite]

There is a heppy lend, fur, fur a-wa-a-ay - Sure as moons is cheeses

Hey, you repeated a link! Now you'll have to do it all over while we throw bricks at you! Just kidding -- don't listen to the haters, y2karl, this is a classic post on the greatest classic (= "dead") American comic artist (and I've already stolen it for LH). Those who don't get him, I feel sorry for you. And those who don't like y2karl's scrollover texts, will you just ignore them, for pete's sake? It's not like using headline formatting or something; you have to actually rest your cursor over the text to see (and be annoyed by) them. So don't do it! Sheesh! ("Officer, every time I stand on that garbage can and crane my neck, I'm terribly offended by what I see through the window!")
posted by languagehat at 7:50 AM on April 28, 2003

Great post, Karl. Thanks!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:56 AM on April 28, 2003

At least it makes more sense than Oor Wullie.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:06 AM on April 28, 2003

Great stuff, y2karl! I discovered Krazy Kat when I was twelve and still consider it a gold standard in the genre. Few modern comics come close to Harriman's level of illustrative quality and style (Calvin & Hobbes did, and Mutts is a strong contender).

Also, I agree with languagehat, and those title tags come in especially handy when the poster gives us so very many links ...
posted by Songdog at 8:23 AM on April 28, 2003

moons

Dang--well, I did it all in Notebook first, tweaked and tweaked and proofread and proofread it and then cut and pasted it to the Post box. Then I clicked on preview. Oh, my God, the mess--about every fifth letter's link lost everything and I was improvising when plugging all the holes. Every link was unique before the shuttle began to re-enter the upper atmosphere, honest.

What I don't understand is that, in the stuff that didn't just disintegrate, whole entire words disappeared, seemingly at random from the sentences in the title tags. And they were usually simple words without any weirdness or punctuation marks in the original--words like online or more. What is up with that?

Anyway, It was closer to structured and actually made more sense ere I hit Preview. After that, I was a drowning well digger in a cave in--I ad libbed, patching all the holes, and made that double link. Guess I was about two screens of Notebook short of fail safe. Well, my reach exceeded my grasp reached in technical terms: I've learned my limits...

There were so many things I've learned in doing this--that he illustrated Archy and Mehitabel, that his parents were Creoles of Color, as SealWyf points out, all the conscious allusions made in homage in Itchy and Scratchy and Calvin and Hobbs and so much, much more.

I thought Krazy Kat was a work of genius before I did this but I didn't have a clue: George Herriman was gifted beyond belief. He was unbelievably well read, well spoken and well observed--as a natural artist and writer, I can think of no peer. And, he was, from all evidence, a wonderfully kind and decent man. That is so rare in my experience. It seems like a miracle beyond belief...
posted by y2karl at 9:18 AM on April 28, 2003 [1 favorite]

So, err, would you care to reccomend one or two of those links as a good place to start?
posted by inpHilltr8r at 9:22 AM on April 28, 2003

Haha! I love Krazy Kat. I was one of those who tried unsuccesfully to get my money back from Eclipse books ten years ago after I had actually paid for their reprints in advance. I still have every book they reprinted before they went out of business.

Now, I'm thinking maybe I have some collectors items on my hand.
posted by vacapinta at 9:33 AM on April 28, 2003

So, err, would you care to reccomend one or two of those links as a good place to start?

For depth and breadth, start here, here and here:

There is a heppy lend, fur, fur a-wa-a-ay - Sure as moons is cheeses

For the kick ass Flash game:

There is a heppy lend, fur, fur a-wa-a-ay - Sure as moons is cheeses
posted by y2karl at 9:51 AM on April 28, 2003

Oh and thank you y2karl! This is an amazing collection of links.
Herriman was brilliant. That he is a comic strip artist has probably kept him from being listed as among the greatest artists of the twentieth century, as he deserves.

I am a heppy, heppy ket!
posted by vacapinta at 10:38 AM on April 28, 2003

great post!

two links i'm surprised didn't make the cut:

the new england theatre company beau jest wrote and performed a musical based on krazy kat a few years ago.

also, jay cantor wrote a book called krazy kat that picked up from the last frame of the comic, in which kat and mouse star in apocalyptic farce and erotica. apparently this is out of print.
posted by pxe2000 at 10:38 AM on April 28, 2003

Sure as... Cantor is mentioned somewhere in some link, I think--but I got Beau Jest.
posted by y2karl at 10:59 AM on April 28, 2003

y2karl's Shortest.Post.Ever.

Although I won't click on any of it.
posted by nyxxxx at 11:52 AM on April 28, 2003

I love you, y2karl. You're my new hero @ MeFi. When I grow up, I wanna be just like you!
posted by zerofoks at 11:55 AM on April 28, 2003

y2karl, for the sake of MeFi, do be careful when composing your next post. If your head were to explode while compiling the links the loss to the community would be incalculable.

p.s. Thanks for another great one!
posted by DakotaPaul at 12:54 PM on April 28, 2003

[this is good]
posted by plep at 12:06 AM on April 29, 2003