Krazy & Ignatz 1933-1934: "Necromancy by the Blue Bean Bush" (Krazy Kat)

Rating:
Summary: The heppy lend gets closa an closa...
Review: Well, here we go again. Another sumptuous collection of one of the best comic strips ever published. Fantagraphics has more than fulfilled its pledge to keep the series going with this the 5th volume of Krazy Kat Sunday strips.

This installment, like all previous installments, has amazing bonus material. The first thirty pages include articles about Herriman and Krazy Kat, early pre-Kat Herriman strips (including "Baron Bean", "Mary's Home From College", "The Amours of Marie Anne MacGee", and "Embarassing Moments"), as well as some rarely seen Krazy Kat dailies. Also, the series editor announces that the next volume will be the first KOLOR KRAZY KAT edition. After 1934, the Kat et al appeared in amazing Kolor. So here stand bound the final black and white Krazy Kat Sunday pages.

And as always the book plumps with the justifiably famous Krazy Kat Sunday strips. Some of the strips had to be painstakingly reconstructed from papers that shrunk Herriman's original sized papers to miniscule proportions. All of the reconstructions are listed in the back of the book. Fantagraphics pulled this feat off with much gusto, as anyone can witness in the book.

For the initiates amongst us, the strip's main theme is love. Krazy, a Kat with indeterminate gender, loves Ignatz, a temperamental mouse. The only sign of affection Krazy can extract from Ignatz is a brick solidly and violently tossed at his skull. So, brick equals love to Krazy. Meanwhile, Offisa Pupp loves Krazy (in a rather repressed manner) and has made his mission in life to halt Ignatz's vile tossings. The entire strip revolves around this variation on a theme. Helplessness and hope in the face of seemingly hopeless love seeps out between the ink marks. Isn't it romantic?

Lastly, February 19th, 1933 has to be amongst Herriman's best "silent" strips. Krazy and Offisa Pupp ride a see-saw and Ignatz repeatedly picks up the brick, drops it, picks it up, etc... Be sure to translate the español on the wall separating the parties.

Carry on, Fantagraphics, carry on...