All PostsKrazy & Ignatz 1935-36: A Wild Warmth of Chromatic Gravy and Krazy & Ignatz 1937-38: Shifting Sands Dusts Its Cheek in Powdered Beauty by George Herriman. Fantagraphics, 2005-2006. 120 p., $19.95 each.
I’ve already reviewed one of the earlier volumes in this reprint series and I don’t have a lot to add to what I said there. The strips still focus on that primal love triangle, still have the same scratchy dynamic lines work, still have the ever changing backgrounds, and still feature some of the best dialogue (and narration) you’ll find in a comic.
These two volumes take up the color strips. The coloring was not done by Herriman (nor, it seems, under any direction of his) and the contrast between this and McCay or Feininger’s use of color makes that obvious, as does the examples of hand ;colored strips by Herriman found in both volumes. They are subtle and beautiful while the normal strips found here are often garish and strange. I’m not sure Krazy Kat is aided by its colorization; it doesn’t distract either.
Interestingly, compared to the previous volume I read, the 1935-1936 volumes’ strips have very regular and conventional page layouts. Gone are the open panels, the long strips, and the embedded panels, replaced with regular identical square panels. This obvious change takes away a tiny bit of the excitement and visual impact of the earlier strips. Thankfully, by the second color volume the layouts change again and become more fluid. Here we find many more large panels (sometimes taking up almost the whole page) and more varied layouts.
Otherwise… not much else to say. This series was/is consistently good and I look forward to more reprint volumes. But if you pick up one of these color volumes, the most recent one is better.
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This post is partly a place keeper for my project going through the “Masters of American Comics”. Next up is E.C. Segar and Thimble Theatre. I’ve got one volume of dailies and a Sunday sequence from the Smithsonian book to reread. By then I should have the second volume of Gasoline Alley strips to discuss along with a bunch of Sundays from Drawn & Quarterly annuals.