The Copacetic Comics Company George Herriman

George Herriman

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
Krazy + Ignatz, 1922 - 1924: "At Last My Drim of Life Has Come True"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$22.22 ($24.99 list)
Read more and comment...	In a bit of fitting Fantagraphical synchronicity, this, the final volume of their series collecting the complete run of Krazy Kat Sunday pages in a single uniform edition, was published in tandem with their initial volume of Nancy dailies. While in most repsects the respective creations of Herriman and Bushmiller could not be more different, on the level of achievement they certainly have much in common, and taken together their work provides ample demonstration of the breadth and depth of the comics form. "At Last My Drim of Life Has Come True" is an apt title in more ways than one. First and foremost as it applies to series editor, Bill Blackbeard, in that it completes what may have been his own dearest "drim", to shepherd the complete run of this great work into a lasting posterity. Blackbeard died shortly before this item saw print, but not before he penned yet another joyfully enthusiastic introduction. Let us all give thanks to his life spent in the service of preserving and promoting the great legacy of the first half century of American comics and look to his example in going forward. This volume, weighing in at over 250 pages, is by far the heftiest in the series, and provides a wealth of bonus materials. Its highlight is the inclusion of the ten experimental color Sundays that ran in 1922, over a decade before the series switched over to color on a regular basis. These pieces are ¡el primo! Herriman and cannot be oversold. Also, just in the nick of time ("Better Late Than Never" declares the essay introducing them) this volume includes Herriman's very first comic strip, Mrs. Waitaminnut – The Woman Who Is Always Late, that originally ran way back in 1903! And, as if that weren't already enough, we are presented with the parting gift of the complete run of Herriman's Sunday-only series focusing on domestic life, Us Husbands that ran for fifty weeks in both full-color and duo-tone in 1926, and for which Jeet Heer provides an introduction to bring you up to speed. We all knew this series would have to end eventually, but at least it went out with a bang! (Now, if only we can persuade Gary and Kim to collect the dailies...)
Krazy and Ignatz – 1919-1921: "A Kind, Benevolent and Amiable Brick"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$21.25 ($24.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Three complete years of Sunday pages of the most copacetic comic strip of all time. Only one more volume to go until Fantagraphics has collected the complete run in one uniform edition designed and with covers by Chris Ware (although with this volume and the last, the actual design has been ably executed by Alexa Koenings, employing Ware's template). Treat yourself to an ample PDF preview, here. Comics readers of all stripes will be transported to a parallel universe where the mysterious workings of the heart are revealed through the magic of Herriman's pen as it graces the pages of this volume.
George Herriman's Krazy Kat: A Celebration of Sundays	Peter Maresca, Patrick McDonnell, George Herriman	Sunday Press		$95.00 ($100.00 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> edited by Patrick McDonnell and Peter Maresca <<•>> Yes, it's true!!! Sunday Press, the fine folks who brought us the game-changing Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, and its myriad Sunday strip sequels have at last seen their way clear to produce an equivalent volume of that greatest of all( well, at least to us here at Copacetic) Sunday strips, the work that introduced poetry to comics: the one and only Krazy Kat, by George Herriman. Finally, KRAZY KAT as it was meant to be seen: 135 full-size Sunday pages from 1916-1944 Plus, dozens more early comics from George Herriman. Included in this splediferous 14 x 17-inch collection is a sampling of each of Herriman's creations for the Sunday newspaper comics from 1901-1906: Professor Otto, The Two Jackies, Major Ozone, and more, many of which have never been reprinted before. HERE are some sample pages, BUT the whole idea of this book is lost in reading them on a computer screen, so think twice before clicking over: you may want to wait for the real thing.
Krazy & Ignatz 1916 - 1918	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$22.22 ($24.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This month we have an embarrassment of riches in the comics classics department, and the lead off can be none other than this absolutely essential volume. Here it is: the first three years of George Herriman's splendiferous Sunday pages for the one and only Krazy Kat! With this volume, Fantagraphics launches its third and final leg of collecting the entirety of Krazy Kat Sunday pages. Due to the fact that the first nine years of the run had been collected in a series of nine volumes jointly published by Eclipse Books and Turtle Island Press roughly twenty years ago, Fantagraphics Potentates, Kim Thompson and Gary Groth decided it was best to pick up the run after that point and then, if the series met with success (which it, of course did) then they would circle back and start over from the beginning and collect those first nine years. And, so here we are. And what a glorious place to be!
Krazy & Ignatz in Tiger Tea	George Herriman	IDW Publishing		$11.75 ($12.95 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> edited by Craig Yoe; introduction by Paul Krassner <<•>> Here we have 91 Krazy Kat dailies from 1936 and 1937; two extended runs – eight straight weeks in '36 and four in '37 – interconnected by choice strips inbetween. While, as is usual with collections edited by Craig Yoe, it is hard to determine what guided his choice and arrangement of the material – other than the fact that the strips are, at least in theory, all related to the putative "Tiger Tea" storyline that is considered Herriman's only foray into an an extended connected narrative – but, hey! – it's all George Herriman, so, really, who cares? Introduced by Paul Krassner and editor Yoe, and packaged in an affordable hardcover volume, it's hard to pass up.
Krazy & Ignatz 1935 - 1936	George Herriman, Bill Blackbeard	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	NOW IN FULL COLOR! Herriman took a short break from penning Krazy Kat in 1935, but when he returned Krazy went to full color, and The Complete Collected Krazy Kat by Fantagraphics Books follows suit. Beginning with this volume and continuing through the next four, until the strip's conclusion, all will be in full color. Because this volume is short on strips as a result of there being no Krazy Kat for the first half of 1935, it has bonuses galore! To wit: "The new color format also opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard’s files, including a surprising color self-portrait by Herriman, several Kat watercolors executed for friends, peers, and relatives, some watercolored non-Krazy Kat material, a reproduction of a vintage archy and mehitabel dust jacket by Herriman - plus a period spoof of Krazy Kat by Minute Movies’ Ed Wheelan, and several instances of other cartoonists imitating Herriman’s unique “Family Upstairs / Krazy Kat” format. This volume also includes “The Kolor of Krazy Kat,” a revelatory essay by journalist and critic Jeet Heer that addresses in-depth the mystery of Herriman’s racial origins, and the varying ways in which Herriman dealt with them artistically throughout his career - a major addition to Herriman-related scholarship and commentary." -- so states Fantagraphics
Krazy & Ignatz 1929 - 1930	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$13.50 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	It's here at last! Another two full years of the greatest newspaper comics strip of all time. Savor and enjoy! Swell cover designs continue by Mr. Chris Ware.
Krazy & Ignatz 1927 - 1928	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$13.50 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The second installment of Fantagraphics' acclaimed collection of the greatest comicstrip of all time! Complete with another swell Chris Ware designed cover/package. What more do you need to know?
Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934: "Necromancy By the Blue Bean Bush"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$13.50 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	A new volume of Krazy Kat is a joyful arrival in this or any season, and this is certainly no exception. This volume presents some of the rarest and hardest to track down of the Krazy Kat strips; with some, in fact, proving impossible to track down. As a result the publishers had to employ microfilm copies in quite a few of the strips reproduced here. The image quality in this volume suffers a bit as a result. This is made up for by the most sumptuous Chris Ware cover yet, along with the nifty additions to this volume, including an early Dingbat Family strip that features Krazy, some Baron Bean strips from 1916 and a complete "never-before-seen" ten-episode daily strip, all by Herriman. Krazy Kat strips are deceptively simple. A cursory glance yields only surface charms that seem to dull with repetition. There are, however, deeper truths to be found, but they are not obvious. Each strip must be taken slowly and meditated over. Given patience and care, the strip will open itself to the diligent reader, with the rewards commensurate to the effort expended. George Herriman's Krazy Kat is a singular achievement in the annals of art.
KRAZY AND IGNATZ: THE KOMPLETE KAT KOMICS 1925 & 1926	George Herriman, Chris Ware	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Designed by Chris Ware -- Finally! Picking up where the Eclipse/Turtle Island series left off in its attempt to collect the complete Krazy Kat Sunday strips, Fantagraphics picks up the fallen torch and once again we're off! Do your duty and buy each and every one of these sure-to-be-fabulous volumes as soon as they come off the press and thereby do your part to not only enrich your own soul, but to provide the much needed cash influx to keep this series going so that yet another generation can be exposed to Herriman's genius and that Krazy Kat! -- 120-page, 8-1/2" x 11" softcover B&W graphic album * ISBN 1-56097-386-2
Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman	Patrick McDonnell, George Herriman	Abrams		$8.88 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Where to begin with such a book. It is clearly and definitely the best book ever done on Krazy Kat, which is, at least in our estimation, the greatest of the classic newspaper comics. Ergo, it is, Copacetically speaking, one of the single best volumes of comics ever produced. In other words, it wins the Desert Island Award™: If there were one comics related book to take to a deserted island, this might very well be it. And as if that weren’t enough, it has now been reissued in an economy softcover edition that’ll only set you back a double sawbuck. Think of it-- a lifetime of pleasure and consolation for what it would cost you to spend a few hours in a bar. And they say there is no God. For sheer aesthetic achievement, narrative inventiveness, psychological incisiveness, cultural significance, and creative ebullience, Krazy Kat, the masterpiece in comics that George Herriman produced on a daily basis from 1913 through 1944, cannot be beat. This volume provides a judiciously selected, finely reproduced and intelligently arranged collection of George Herriman’s work accompanied by an engrossing account of his life and career. NOW AVAILABLE AT A SUPER SPECIAL PRICE!
Krazy & Ignatz 1937 - 1938	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The latest in this amazing series is now on our shelves, wrapped in its fine Chris Ware designed cover and endpapers and packed with a full complement of 104 full-page full-color Sunday strips. Page after page of visual and verbal whirlygigs and whackiness, formal experimentation, philosophical meanderings and just plain fun.
Krazy & Ignatz 1943 - 1944: "He Nods in Quiescent Siesta"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	This beautiful, full color, oversize softcover volume designed by Chris Ware brings us to the end of the thirty year journey of George Herriman's amazing Krazy Kat comic strip. It's packed with Herriman rarities including letters, photos, some wonderful one-of-a-kind hand-colored illustrations, and several never-before-seen Herriman works that together help take the sting out of knowing that this volume completes the collection of Krazy Kat Sunday pages that began twenty(?) years ago with the Eclipse / Turtle Island editions. For those of you who only joined this journey when Fantagraphics took it over, you still have quite a treat to look forward to as Fantagraphics intends to now circle back to the beginning and collect the first ten years of Krazy Kat, creating what is sure to be the definitive uniform edition. For the time being, let's all savor the last fruits of Herriman's genius and then give thanks.
Krazy & Ignatz: 1931-1932	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$13.50 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	by George Herriman Huzzah! It is a heppy, heppy day. The fourth volume in Fantagraphics fabulous series collecting the entirety of the Sunday pages of George Herriman's amazing masterpiece, Krazy Kat, is here! As with previous volumes, this book contains two complete years of Krazy Kat Sunday pages along with commentary by the "Mr. Know-It-All" of classic newspaper comics, Bill Blackbeard, all between covers designed by contemporary comics ace, Chris Ware. And as a special added bonus, unique (so far) to this volume -- 60 daily Krazy Kat strips from 1931. Huzzah! Learn more about the mouse, the Kat and the (Herri)man here.
McSweeney's #13	Mark Beyer, Ivan Brunetti, Kaz, Art Spiegelman and more ...	McSweeney's	McSweeney's	$20.00 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Finally, it's here: the most anticipated release of 2004 (so far). Striving for objet d'art status, McSweeney's 13 comes as close as any comics release to attaining it. Starting with a dust jacket that folds out into a two sided comics poster: the outer side featuring a dense full color, 360º narrative by editor and comics fiend, Chris Ware; the inner side featuring a vaguely ceremonial (think Mayan) worshipping of the idols of comics by Gary Panter. But there's more: tucked into the folds of this dust-jacket-cum-suitable-for-framing-wall-art are two mini-comics commissioned especially for this issue; one -- in full color -- by Ron Rege, Jr., and the other in B & W (as it should be) by long time mini-master, John Porcellino. And that's just the dust jacket! Moving on to the front and back binding plates (the hard covers beneath the dust jacket), we have a hundred or so images culled from a 1936 guide to cartooning separated by a lavishly embossed spine. The end papers are by Ivan Brunetti, and feature a wallpaper of minimalistic renditions of his personal comics and cartoon hall of fame. And, finally, there is the contents of the book itself. The subject of much speculation as to whether it would be reprints or newly commissioned work, the answer is... Both! About half and half, depending on how you look at it. Here's how it breaks down: Some of the work has appeared in non-comics periodicals, but is collected herein for the first time. Under this category are Mark Beyer, Ivan Brunetti, Kaz, Art Spiegelman (although his pieces are being reprinted everywhere at this point) and some of the pieces by Chris Ware. Straight out reprints are the inclusions by Charles Burns (although the frontispiece is new), Chester Brown, Debbie Drechsler, Jaime and Gilberto Hernandez, Mark Newgarden, Archer Prewitt, Joe Sacco, Richard Sala (newly colored, however), Seth, and Adrian Tomine. New to us -- and therefore, we imagine, new to you as well -- are the works by Lynda Barry, Jeffrey Brown, Dan Clowes, David Collier, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch, Julie Doucet, David Heatley, Ben Katchor, Joe Matt, Richard McGuire, Gary Panter, some of the Chris Ware, and of course the aforementioned dust-jacket and minis. In addition to all this contemporary work, there are selections of classic and archival work sprinkled throughout: First and foremost among these is a 15-page spread on "the inventor of comics," Rodolphe Töpfler, and his first appearance in America, introduced by Chris Ware; an 80% reproduction of an original 1922 Mutt and Jeff daily strip by Bud Fisher that takes four pages to display (which gives you an idea of how big they drew comics back then!); and a nine page spread on George Herriman, introduced by Tim Samuelson and featuring Herriman's last Krazy Kat dailies, also reproduced from the originals. And, as if this weren't enough, there are two appreciations by Chris Ware, one of the abstract-expressionist-turned-representational-painter-with-a-personal-affinity-for-comics-iconography, Philip Guston, and the other of Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. In addition there is a critical appreciation of comics from John Updike, and nostalgiac/elegiac remembrances of comics related experiences by Glen David Gold, Malachi Cohen, and Chip Kidd. The volume opens with a preface from Ira Glass, followed by an introduction by Chris Ware, who, when all is said and done, is clearly more than simply the editor of this work. This is a great piece, especially when you consider it's primary purpose: preaching to the unconverted, those countless, teeming millions out there in America and beyond who don't locate the foundation of their identity in comics. With this volume, McSweeney's begins a new ambitious distribution arrangement with Publisher's Group West in the USA and Penguin Books in the UK; thereby bringing their publications before a great many more potential readers. They couldn't have chosen a better volume to initiate this venture. Let's wish them luck.
Krazy and Ignatz - 1941 - 1942: "A Ragout of Raspberries"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	By George Herriman It's here, the latest -- and, sadly, the next-to-last -- two-year collection of the full color Krazy Kat Sunday pages. That's right, there's 104 full color, full page reproductions of Herriman masterworks laid out one after another, filling this volume that is more than just a book, becoming, during the process of its consumption, a soothing balm for frazzled nerves and a lightener of darkened moods. Edited, as always, by the indefatigable Bill Blackbeard and witih an introduciton by classic comics aficionado, Jeet Heer that is accompanied by some choice Herriman works including a double-page spread of an original watercolor that we guarantee will knock your socks off! Essential.
Krazy & Ignatz - 1939 - 1940: "A Brick Stuffed with Moom-Bims"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$16.95 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Introduction by Jeet Heer. Two more complete years of the one and only Krazy Kat, all in full color. We're in the home stretch of the original run now: only two more volumes to go (sob) ... but then Fantagraphics will be going back to the beginning and printing the first ten years that were previously published by Eclipse and have been out of print for over a decade, so there's still plenty more to look forward to. For now we have another 105 flights of fancy from the inimitable George Herriman, all wrapped up in another fine C. Ware designed package. What's that? You say you ain't hep to the kat? Well then, here's where to start.
Arf Forum: The Unholy Marriage of Art + Comics #2	George Herriman, Craig Yoe, Ernie Bushmiller, Max Ernst and more ...	Fantagraphics		$16.95 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This giant oversize full color softcover is the third installment in Mr. Yoe's ongoing "Arf" series charting the links between art and comics with a emphasis on cheesy humor, the previous volumes being Modern Arf and Arf Museum. A life long collector of all things comics with a focus on the obscure and esoteric and with a decided accent on fun, Yoe shares his rare finds in the spirit of friendship. This issue's contents range far and wide indeed, including works by Ernie Bushmiller and Max Ernst; surrealist caricaturist, Ted Scheel and bizarre '50s horror comic artist, WIlliam Ekgren; and plenty of photos, magazine covers, and cartoons that display and situate comics in American culture. Each issue also includes an original work of Yoe's own, and this time around his piece is -- amazingly! -- scripted by none other than Stan "The Man" Lee!
The Kat Who Walked in Beauty: The Panoramic Dailies of 1920	George Herriman	Fantagraphics		$25.00 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Derya Ataker Designed by Jacob Covey, who is clearly on a roll, this magnificent giant (15" x 12") hardcover volume presents a classic run of the Krazy Kat daily strips from 1920 (primarily) & 1921 that have never before (we believe) been collected. In addition we get to see the very earliest (1911) appearances of Krazy and Ignatz in "The Dingbat Family," an earlier Herriman strip, a nice run of Krazy Kat dailies from 1914, and, as and added bonus, the illustrated sheet music of "Krazy Kat" A Pantomime by John Alden Carpenter; none too shabby, we'd say. This is the first time we've ever seen Herriman dailies presented at full size (13" x 3") and we have to say that it's really a treat. Thank you, Mr. Ataker & Co.

Mon - Thu	11 - 5
Fri & Sat	11 - 7
Sun	12 - 4