Born 130 years ago on August 22, 1880, George Herriman is known today as one of the most imaginative cartoonists of the 20th century. But early in his career, The Bookman magazine published an article that quoted him arguing that cartoonists are impervious to inspiration, preferring instead to serve the "inartistic majority." Herriman’s quote contains the visionary landscapes, incongruous juxtapositions and curious contradictions that would later become stylistic hallmarks of Krazy Kat.

George Herriman

From American Caricature and Comic Art, Part II by La Touche Hancock
The Bookman, November 1902

Art combined with poetry is the characteristic of George Herriman. Were his drawings not so well known one would think he had mistaken his vocation. Listen!

"Inspiration! Who ever heard of a comic artist being inspired? Take him out into a field where the green grasses, swept by caressing zephyrs, bend and nod in rapt delight, dodging the nibble of the frisky, hungry lamb as it gambols hither and thither, and see if he (the artist, not the lamb) can see in this any blissful clutch, grasping heart, mind and soul in a grip of steely delight. No! He’ll draw a lamb all right – a lamb so distorted that the green nodding field will rise in disgust to smite him.

"What does he know of the inspiration to be obtained from blue, azure, turquoise skies with fleecy clouds riding on and on, whither no one knows. Now take the clouds and skies of which I speak, blend them with the green grass and gambolling lambs, and a few trees, a few red-roofed barns, little hamlets in the distance, a lake, a creek, a rustic bridge, a nestling home amid clinging vines, and lots and lots of other things so dear to an artist’s heart, place them in full view of the inspired one and see the light of imagination fire him. They never will. His mind and soul have lost that delicate sense of the poetic and artistic, which one would naturally think were indigenous and he will turn away with a sigh, sit down at his desk and continue to worry out idioticies for the edification of an inartistic majority!"

As Herriman entered his 56th year, the Tiger Tea series was in its fourth month. Today’s episode features the strip that was published on Herriman’s birthday in 1936:

Krazy Kat – "Home, James" by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 22, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – "Home, James" by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 21, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Note to Krazy Kompletists: Yesterday’s episode featured the Tiger Tea strip from August 18th, 1936. Today’s episode is the strip from August 20th, 1936. The August 19th cartoon is included in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in “Tiger Tea“ (BUY THE BOOK! It’s a great collection and the best deal in Coconino  County! More info below!).

Today’s episode:

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in “Tiger Tea,” a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Paradise Lost by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 18, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Riffraff! by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 17, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – At the End of His Rope. by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 15, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today, we present the conclusion of artist John Leighton’s 1847 British comic book / graphic novel, London Out of Town, or, The Adventures of the Browns at the Sea Side.  

In the prior two parts (Click Here to view them), the Brown family leave London for a summer vacation at an unnamed English sea port. Their adventures have included the coach and ship passage to get there, searching for the promised view of the sea at the place they are staying, and being chased by insects and a bull during an inland, country-side picnic. Apart from the journey itself, and one walk on the pier, they’ve spent very little time down by the seashore.

As we begin Part Three, we find the Browns bored in their rented lodgings, as it is raining outside. The young master Brown heads off on an excursion to the seashore on his own, frightening his mother who imagines him devoured by sea monsters, and who employs a town crier to get up a hunt for him. He returns, having caught crabs, whose escape from his basket give the family a lovely morning awakening!  For their final vacation day, they at last get to the beach, then “go for a sail in what proves anything but a pleasure boat,” and finally end their vacation in a night of merriment.    

Click on each picture, to open a larger version.

This installment concludes (this year’s) run of Victorian Age Summer Comics. Next Monday, we’ll start a four-week run of comics themed on Back-to-School/College

Doug Wheeler

SummerVacation

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – A Big Butter and Egg Man. by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 14, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – A Freight Will Be Along! by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, August 13, 1936

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Semi-Authorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

On October 18th, 1882, the same day as Charles Taylor’s & the (New York) Daily Graphic’s second shot at William H. Vanderbilt for his “The Public be Damned!” comment, Puck magazine took aim on its front cover via the below cartoon by Frederick Burr Opper. Unlike their competitors, Puck didn’t hold back, actually printing the word “damned” in their version of “The Public be Damned!” (To see Taylor’s first shot, as well as find an article explaining various origins given for the comment, Click Here.)

In Opper’s cartoon, we see Vanderbilt the monopolist, his foot pushing down the American Eagle, and two lapdogs chained by his side, their collars reading Congress and Legislature. A few of William’s choice quotes are framed behind him, on the wall. But, his new quote will eclipse them all. Vanderbilt would never be forgiven for the comment, it becoming part of the majority of cartoons about him from this point forward. (For one example, see Opper’s The Monopoly Pharaohs Building Their Tombs, published more than a year later, wherein “The Public be Damned” is depicted carved above the entrance to Vanderbilt’s tomb/pyramid.)

Click on the below picture to make it larger.

Below from the same issue, Puck’s editorial prose piece on the matter, their outrage at about peak level.

Okay, at this point there are two more sequential Vanderbilt strips by Charles Taylor, plus several more Puck and Daily Graphic cartoons by Frost, Opper, and Keppler to show, which hilight W.H. Vanderbilt’s beginning and end. The next Taylor strip involves William Vanderbilt as Santa Claus (yes, really!), that I’d hate to not use at Christmas time. So I’m halting my current run of William Vanderbilt material today, on the high note of train crashes and his “Public be Damned!” comment. I’ll return around Christmas, with Vanderbilt Santa Scrooge and the rest!

Click on William H. Vanderbilt to review all the past postings about him.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYPuck