George Herriman

Innovative cartoonist who subverted racial stereotypes through Krazy Kat comics

George Joseph Herriman (1880–1944) created Krazy Kat – the groundbreaking comic strip (1913-1944) that transformed the medium into high art. Born to mixed-race Creole parents in New Orleans, Herriman passed as white during the Jim Crow era, a duality that infused his work with profound explorations of identity.

Set in fictional Coconino County, Krazy Kat featured gender-fluid characters and surreal landscapes drawn with exceptional graphic artistry. The eternal love triangle – Krazy (genderless cat), Ignatz (mouse), and Offisa Pupp – subverted racial and social norms through poetic dialect and avant-garde visuals.

While dismissed by the public as 'just a funny animal strip', intellectuals like Gertrude Stein and e.e. cummings revered it. Art critic Gilbert Seldes wrote in 1924: There is more imagination, more poetry, more psychology in Krazy Kat than in nine-tenths of the human comedies.

Herriman's legacy: Proving comics could be philosophical art. As The Comics Journal notes: Every alternative cartoonist today walks in Herriman's shadow. His work directly inspired everyone from Walt Disney to Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes).