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159-406: George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–1944). More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among those in the arts. Gilbert Seldes ' article "The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself" was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to

318-419: A $ 2-per-week job there as an assistant in the engraving department, where he occasionally did drawings for advertisements and political cartoons . When he was 20, Herriman clandestinely boarded a freight train bound for New York City , hoping his chances as an artist would be better there. He was unsuccessful at first, and survived by working as a barker and billboard painter at Coney Island , until one of

477-495: A Super Bowl Budweiser commercial, (The Human Bridge) have been filmed in downtown Santa Paula. Santa Paula was the early film capital of California. Gaston Méliès brought his Star Film Company to the city in 1911, filming movies such as The Ghost of Sulphur Mountain . Parts of the movie Disorganized Crime (1989), starring Fred Gwynne , was filmed downtown on Main Street. Main Street and other locations featured prominently in

636-473: A close relationship with cartoonist James Swinnerton's first wife Louise, with whom he frequently exchanged letters. Herriman underwent a kidney operation in spring 1938, and during his ten-week convalescence King Features reran old Krazy Kat strips. Krazy Kat ' s popularity fell considerably over the years, and by the 1930s it was running in only thirty-five newspapers, while its contemporaries such as Bringing Up Father were reportedly running in up to

795-454: A cockroach. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was a proponent of Herriman and gave him a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate , which guaranteed Herriman a comfortable living and an outlet for his work despite its lack of popularity. George Joseph Herriman was born at 348 Villere Street in New Orleans on August 22, 1880. He was born into a mixed-race family and came from

954-529: A comic strip. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century. Herriman's work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Elzie C. Segar , Will Eisner , Charles M. Schulz , Robert Crumb , Art Spiegelman , Bill Watterson , and Chris Ware . Herriman was born in New Orleans , Louisiana, to mixed-race Creole parents, and grew up in Los Angeles. After he graduated from high school in 1897, he worked in

1113-627: A continuing character, Musical Mose . The strip featured an African-American musician who impersonated other ethnicities, only to suffer the consequences when discovered by his audience. Professor Otto and his Auto , about a terrifyingly dangerous driver, followed in March, and Acrobatic Archie , a "kid strip" with a child protagonist, first appeared in April. With his future as a cartoonist seemingly assured, Herriman traveled back to Los Angeles to marry his childhood sweetheart and returned with her to New York. In

1272-418: A couple of 9 Chickweed Lane strips, Krazy and Ignatz are referred to in regards to a printed training bra once worn by Edda during her preteen years. For many decades, only a small percentage of Herriman's strip was available in reprinted form. The first Krazy Kat collection, published by Henry Holt and Company in 1946, just two years after Herriman's death, gathered 200 selected strips. In Europe,

1431-480: A critic from the world of high art giving legitimacy to the comic strip medium. Vanity Fair inducted Herriman into its Hall of Fame in the April 1923 issue. Hearst, an admirer of Krazy Kat , had given Herriman a lifetime contract with his company King Features Syndicate , which gave Herriman the security to live anywhere he wanted. In 1922, he moved back to Hollywood, into a two-story Spanish-style home at 1617 North Sierra Bonita, from where he made frequent visits to

1590-471: A despised medium, without an atom of pretentiousness, is day after day producing something essentially fine. It is the result of a naive sensibility rather like that of the douanier Rousseau [ Henri Rousseau ]; it does not lack intelligence, because it is a thought-out, a constructed piece of work. -- Gilbert Seldes in The Seven Lively Arts (1924) Krazy Kat gained an appreciative audience in

1749-451: A devoted husband and father, of slight build, mild-mannered and an anonymous contributor to charities. He was generous to his friends, and sold his first Hollywood house, which he had bought for $ 50,000, to a friend for $ 40,000. Though a private person, he was said to be an entertaining host to his friends. He would sometimes stay silent during social occasions and would often leave the room to wash dishes, which he said he enjoyed as it gave him

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1908-452: A distinct Latin-American flavor, often selling a myriad of imported items. In addition some markets also have a meat department which sells a variety of beef, poultry, and seafood. A 501-acre expansion (203 ha) on the eastern edge of Santa Paula was approved in 2015. This residential and commercial development by Limoneira was known as "East Area One" for the purpose of approval. Officials and residents were hoping this major expansion of

2067-547: A false or forged instrument, dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, known failure to warn of serious concealed danger, withholding information regarding a substantial danger to public safety, conspiracy to commit a crime, causing impairment of an employee's body, and disposal of hazardous waste. The individuals pleaded guilty. The two corporate entities reached an agreement in June 2019 after they had already paid about $ 800,000 in restitution. The city of Santa Paula, according to

2226-547: A fan of the strip, asked Herriman to straightforwardly define the character's sex, the cartoonist admitted that Krazy was "something like a sprite, an elf. They have no sex. So that Kat can't be a he or a she. The Kat's a spirit—a pixie—free to butt into anything". Most characters inside the strip use "he" and "him" to refer to Krazy. Ignatz is driven to distraction by Krazy Kat's naïveté, and generally reacts by throwing bricks at Krazy's head. To shield his plans from Officer Pupp, Ignatz hides his bricks, disguises himself, or enlists

2385-471: A female householder with no husband present, and 20.9% were non-families. 17.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.49 and the average family size was 3.86. In the city, the population was spread out, with 31.4% under the age of 18, 10.9% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 17.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

2544-463: A few hundred strips apiece; each of the issues' covers was designed by Joost Swarte . However, owing to the difficulty of tracking down high-quality copies of the original newspapers, no plans for a comprehensive collection of Krazy Kat strips surfaced until the 1980s. All of the Sunday strips from 1916 to 1924 were reprinted by Eclipse Comics in cooperation with Turtle Island Press. Beginning in 1988,

2703-503: A fruitful situation: in the July 26 episode, a mouse threw a brick at the family cat—called "Kat"—which hit the cat on the head. The antics of this mouse and "Kat" continued to appear in the bottom portion of The Dingbat Family . Herriman said he did this "to fill up the waste space". About a month after its first appearance, the "Kat" crept up on the sleeping mouse and kissed it loudly. The mouse awoke saying, "I dreamed an angel kissed me", while

2862-793: A line of French-speaking Louisiana Creole mulattoes who were considered free people of color , and were reportedly active in the early abolitionist movement . His paternal great-grandfather, Stephen Herriman, was a white New Yorker who had children with Justine Olivier, a free woman of color, and owned a tailor shop on Royal Street in New Orleans. His paternal grandmother was born in Havana , Cuba. His parents were George Herriman, Jr. (1850–1923), born in New Orleans, and Clara Morel Herriman (1857–1911), born in Iberville . The family attended St. Augustine Catholic Church in New Orleans' Tremé neighborhood. When he

3021-458: A month from midnights. Fuwi!" Once Ignatz reverts to his white self, Krazy loves him again. Herriman's ethnic heritage was unknown to his colleagues. Fellow cartoonist Tad Dorgan nicknamed him "the Greek", a label which stuck and was taken up by his biographers and the press, who called him the son of a Greek baker. At other times, he was identified as French, Irish, and Turkish. He told a friend that he

3180-410: A new model annually. Herriman married his childhood sweetheart Mabel Lillian Bridge in Los Angeles on July 7, 1902. They had two daughters: Mabel (1903-1962), nicknamed "Toodles" (later "Toots") and Barbara (1908-1939), nicknamed "Bobbie", who had epilepsy and died unexpectedly in 1939 at the age of 31. Herriman was born to mixed-race parents, and his birth certificate lists Herriman as "colored". In

3339-546: A non-contractual, one-shot basis and another on a continuing basis in the Philadelphia North American Syndicate's first comic strip supplement. His first color comic strips appeared in the T. C. McClure Syndicate beginning October 20. His success with these syndicated strips convinced Herriman to give up on magazine submissions. For the Pulitzer papers on February 16, 1902, he began his first strip that had

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3498-414: A pay cut, or that his salary was $ 750 a week. From 1935, Krazy Kat appeared in color, of which Herriman made bold use. He reduced the amount of hatchwork and used larger, more open panels. Herriman died in his sleep in his home near Hollywood on April 25, 1944, after a long illness. An incompletely inked penciling of a week's worth of daily strips was found on his drawing board. On his death certificate,

3657-463: A population of 29,321. The population density was 6,230.3 inhabitants per square mile (2,405.5/km ). The racial makeup of Santa Paula was 18,458 (63.0%) White , 152 (0.5%) African American , 460 (1.6%) Native American , 216 (0.7%) Asian , 24 (0.1%) Pacific Islander , 8,924 (30.4%) from other races , and 1,087 (3.7%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 23,299 persons (79.5%). The Census reported that 29,188 people (99.5% of

3816-566: A prime location for growing citrus. Avocado has also become a major crop and an avocado was added to the city's official seal. Calavo Growers, Inc. is headquartered here. Santa Paula has very few large retail stores but residents often travel to neighboring cities to purchase hard goods. The Main Street area consists mostly of clothing shops, specialty shops, novelty shops, dollar stores , restaurants, service-oriented businesses and office space. The city also has neighborhood stores and small grocery markets. Many of these small shops and markets have

3975-479: A quote from the cartoon in an epigraph ("ZIP... POW... LOVES ME") while Michael Stipe of the rock band R.E.M. has a tattoo of Krazy and Ignatz. In the Garfield TV special Garfield: His 9 Lives , Garfield plays a stunt double for Krazy Kat. In one 1989 Bloom County strip by Berkeley Breathed , Krazy and Ignatz can be seen watching Binkley, Oliver, and Opus float through a Herriman-esque landscape; and in

4134-403: A role in very many of the stories. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans did the music for most of the episodes. Most of the episodes are available on DVD. In 1951, Dell Publishing revived the characters for a run of comic books. All five issues were drawn by cartoonist John Stanley , best known for his Little Lulu comic books. While the general plot premise is reminiscent of Herriman's strip,

4293-420: A series of paperbacks – picking up where Eclipse Comics left off – with introductory essays and other bonuses, such as rare artworks and photographs. Bill Blackbeard is the series editor, Chris Ware the cover and interior designer. For the first time ever, Fantagraphics reprinted the entirety of Krazy Kat Sundays: the first ten volumes collect two years worth of Sundays each (the first five in black and white,

4452-501: A signature of the later Krazy Kat strip. The cast grew and soon included the mainstay character Bull Pupp and characters from the Gooseberry Sprigg strip. The strip's characters, relations and situations grew organically during its lifetime, encouraged by Herriman's colleagues. The cat-and-mouse substrip was gaining in popularity; instead of filling up space in the bottom of The Dingbat Family ' s panels, it began to occupy

4611-404: A significant local employer. A major expansion began in 2016 when construction started on a 500-acre (200 ha) master-planned community of 1,500 homes. The town has been devastated by floods, fires, and was once affected by a nearby truck explosion that resulted in an industrial disaster. The Great Flood of 1862 began on December 24, 1861, when it rained for almost four weeks, reaching

4770-702: A similar visual pastiche of the American Southwest, are among the most famous cartoons to draw upon Herriman's work. Patrick McDonnell , creator of the current strip Mutts and co-author of Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman , cites it as his "foremost influence". Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame named Krazy Kat among his three major influences (along with Peanuts and Pogo ). Watterson would revive Herriman's practice of employing varied, unpredictable panel layouts in his Sunday strips. Charles M. Schulz and Will Eisner both said that they were drawn towards cartooning partly because of

4929-623: A site just north of Santa Paula. The large South Mountain Oil Field southeast of town, just across the Santa Clara River , was discovered by the Oak Ridge Oil Company in 1916, and developed methodically through the 1920s, bringing further economic diversification and growth to the area. While the field peaked in production in the 1950s, Occidental Petroleum continues to extract oil through its Vintage Production subsidiary and remains

George Herriman - Misplaced Pages Continue

5088-409: A strong poetic sensibility (" Agathla , centuries aslumber, shivers in its sleep with splenetic splendor, and spreads abroad a seismic spasm with the supreme suavity of a vagabond volcano" ). Herriman was also fond of experimenting with unconventional page layouts in his Sunday strips, including panels of various shapes and sizes, arranged in whatever fashion he thought would best tell the story. Though

5247-510: A thousand structures were destroyed which included a few out buildings just outside the city. It was finally confirmed to be fully contained in January 2018, and a reported 281,893 acres (440 sq mi; 114,078 ha) had burned. One firefighter and one civilian were the only fatalities directly caused by the fire. The cost of the fire rose to be an estimated $ 297 million. On October 31, 2019, the Maria Fire

5406-401: A thousand. By some accounts, Herriman's salary from Hearst's King Features Syndicate was $ 750 a week, and, realizing that this was far more than the revenue the strip could be generating, Herriman once offered to take a pay cut, which Hearst refused; however, according to Michael Tisserand's biography on Herriman from 2016, there exists no evidence of the story that Herriman ever suggested to take

5565-477: A three-mile-long plume of toxic smoke (4.8 km) and the closing of Highway 126 . Chemical smoke drifted over the area and nearby residents and businesses were required to evacuate. About 1,000 US gallons (3,800 L; 830 imp gal) of a chemical mixture consisted of some sort of organic peroxide . Three weeks after the incident, the substance was still highly susceptible to friction and seemed to react to something as slight as wind. Sodium chlorite

5724-528: A tier of panels of its own. In July 1912, while Herriman had the Dingbats on vacation, Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse took over the strip, which was retitled Krazy Kat and I. Mouse for the duration. On October 28, 1913, Krazy Kat debuted as an independent strip on the daily comics page. Only Hearst's personal support allowed the strip to continue, as the reception from the readers showed zero interest or enthusiasm according to comics historian Bill Blackbeard . But it

5883-576: A total of 35 inches (890 mm) at Los Angeles . The failure and near complete collapse of the St. Francis Dam took place in the middle of the night on March 12, 1928. The dam was holding a full reservoir of 12.4 billion gallons (47 billion liters) of water that surged down San Francisquito Canyon and emptied into the Santa Clara River. The town was first hit by the waters at approximately 3:00 a.m. Though hundreds of homes and structures were destroyed,

6042-462: A year of Sunday strips. The Komplete Kolor Krazy Kat (series). Each volume reprinted two years of Sundays. The publisher dissolved before the series' aim of completeness could be achieved. All the Daily Strips.... (series) 6¼ x 6¼ inch format. Presents Krazy and Ignatz (series) Four 3¼ x 4 inch volumes reproducing the 1921 strips in miniature. In 2002, Fantagraphics began to publish

6201-628: Is a city in Ventura County, California , United States. Situated amid the orchards of the Santa Clara River Valley , the city advertises itself to tourists as the " Citrus Capital of the World". Santa Paula was one of the early centers of California's petroleum industry . The Union Oil Company Building , the founding headquarters of the Union Oil Company of California in 1890, now houses

6360-468: Is co-author of Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman (1986). Will Eisner discovered Herriman's comics when he was selling newspapers in the 1930s and called Krazy Kat "the big strong influence" on his own work. Art Spiegelman called Herriman one of his "conscious influences". Herriman's widespread influence on American underground comix , particularly his shape-shifting, psychedelic backgrounds, lack of respect for convention and his irreverence,

6519-503: Is currently reissuing its entire run in volumes designed by Ware (which also include reproductions of Herriman miscellanea, some of it donated by Ware). In the 1980s, Sam Hurt's syndicated strip Eyebeam showed a clear Herriman influence, particularly in its continually morphing backgrounds. Among non-cartoonists, Jay Cantor 's 1987 novel Krazy Kat uses Herriman's characters to analyze humanity's reaction to nuclear weapons, Russell Hoban 's novel The Medusa Frequency (also 1987) uses

George Herriman - Misplaced Pages Continue

6678-422: Is evident in the work of Robert Crumb , Denis Kitchen , and Bobby London . Journalist Paul Krassner called Crumb "the illegitimate offspring of Krazy Kat ". Cartoonist Chris Ware was so taken with Herriman's work he made a pilgrimage to Monument Valley to see the desert landscapes that inspired much of Herriman's art. I always thought if I could do something as good as Krazy Kat , I would be happy. Krazy Kat

6837-464: Is evident throughout, with clay-shingled rooftops, trees planted in pots with designs imitating Navajo art, along with references to Mexican-American culture. The strip also occasionally features incongruous trappings borrowed from the stage, with curtains, backdrops, theatrical placards, and sometimes even floor lights framing the panel borders. The descriptive passages mix whimsical, often alliterative language with phonetically-spelled dialogue and

6996-443: Is hopelessly in love with Ignatz and thinks that the mouse's brick-tossing is his way of returning that love. Krazy is also completely unaware of the bitter rivalry between Ignatz and "Offissa" Pupp and mistakes the dog's frequent imprisonment of the mouse for an innocent game of tag ("Ever times I see them two playing games togedda, Ignatz seems to be It"). On those occasions when Ignatz is caught before he can launch his brick, Krazy

7155-418: Is left pining for the "l'il ainjil" and wonders where the beloved mouse has gone. Krazy's own gender is never made clear and appears to be fluid, varying from strip to strip. Most authors post-Herriman (beginning with Cummings) have mistakenly referred to Krazy only as female, but Krazy's creator was more ambiguous and even published several strips poking fun at this uncertainty. When filmmaker Frank Capra ,

7314-448: Is much wider than the one of the previous paperbacks, collects 3 years worth of Sundays per volume. The bonus material, while largely similar to the one of the previous collections, presents some differences, though, such as new essays and images. Michael Catron and Bill Blackbeard are the series editors, while Keeli McCarthy is the cover and interior designer. Santa Paula, California Santa Paula ( Spanish for " St. Paula ")

7473-662: Is repeatedly hit in the head with a brick by a mouse (a capuchin monkey) costumed to look similar to Disney's Mickey Mouse . In 1974, the OrlandoCon comics convention ("O'Con") introduced the Ignatz Award , a gold brick presented to the show's guest of honor. Recipients of the O'Con Ignatz included Don Martin , Ralph Kent , Joe Kubert , Martin Nodell , Don Addis , Burne Hogarth , and Dik Browne . This tradition continued until O'Con's demise in 1994. Soon after, beginning in 1997,

7632-683: The Dictionary of American Biography , Berger discovered the cartoonist's race was listed as "colored" on his birth certificate obtained from the New Orleans Board of Health. The 1880 census for New Orleans listed his parents as "mulatto". On reading this, African-American poet Ishmael Reed dedicated his 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo to "George Herriman, Afro-American, who created Krazy Kat". Herriman came to be identified as Black or Creole in comics literature, including his first book-length biography, Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman (1986), while

7791-609: The Hearst papers with "a salary commensurate with his talents", starting April 22 at the New York American , which ran no daily comic strips at the time. Herriman drew sports cartoons in an office alongside Frederick Burr Opper , James Swinnerton , and Tad Dorgan , who was popularly known as "Tad" and was considered a star at another Hearst paper, the New York Evening Journal . Tad and Herriman were often assigned to cover

7950-629: The International Film Service (IFS), though Herriman was not involved. In early 1920, after a two-year hiatus, the John R. Bray studio began producing a second series of Krazy Kat shorts. These cartoons hewed close to the comic strips, including Ignatz, Pupp and other standard supporting characters. Krazy's ambiguous gender and feelings for Ignatz were usually preserved; bricks were occasionally thrown. Bray Productions produced at least eleven such Krazy Kat shorts until February 1921, after which

8109-591: The Krazy Kat Sundays so that they could be run either as a full Sunday page or as two four-panel dailies. Herriman lamented intrusion on his page designs, and the artwork of the period took on a rushed look. He was made to focus on the strip's characterization, and during this period, the Krazy—Ignatz—Offisa Pupp love triangle for which the strip is remembered became fully developed. Pupp pined for Krazy, Krazy loved Ignatz, and Ignatz hated Krazy and pelted

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8268-936: The Santa Paula Elementary School District and the Santa Paula Union High School District . In 2013, the two bodies were merged to form the Santa Paula Unified School District . Many schools in Santa Paula, largely serving students from low-income families, are scoring low in state-administered tests, below the 30th percentile in statewide comparisons. Elementary schools Middle school High schools Thomas Aquinas College , outside city limits The city has been featured in Hollywood media on numerous occasions. Some examples include: Various commercials, including

8427-573: The Small Press Expo (SPX) began distributing their own Ignatz Award bricks to the winners of various annual awards. During his tenure as SPX Ignatz Award administrator, Jeff Alexander drew a strip for the annual award program in Herriman's style. In 1984, Cyndi Lauper paid homage to Krazy Kat in her song "Yeah Yeah", overdubbing the phrase in Krazy Kat's vocal style — "Ignatz, I love you" — during

8586-481: The United States Census Bureau , has a total area of 4.7 square miles (12 km ), 4.6 square miles (12 km ) of it land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km ) of it (2.41%) water. Santa Paula is located in the Santa Clara River Valley on the north bank of the Santa Clara River and is surrounded by fruit orchards. The downtown area is centered around Main Street, which is home to the oldest homes in

8745-523: The World to the New York Daily News , where he was given a larger quantity and variety of work, including cartoon reporting on sports and politics. In February and March, he had a short-lived continuing character comic strip about domestic life called Home Sweet Home . That spring, he began illustrating a series of articles written by Walter Murphy called Bubblespikers . Rudolph Block hired Herriman for

8904-584: The World Color Printing Company . He revived Major Ozone and produced Grandma's Girl—Likewise Bud Smith , which he combined from two earlier strips, and a two-tiered children's strip, Rosy Posy—Mama's Girl . He began to work with the Los Angeles Times on January 8, 1906, before returning to Hearst that summer. Accompanying a front-page illustration in Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner , Herriman

9063-453: The poverty line , including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over. While agriculture is the most important industry in Santa Paula today, the city experienced an economic boom after oil was discovered in 1880. The economy is primarily agriculturally based, originally focusing on the growing of oranges and lemons. Santa Paula's mediterranean climate combined with an estimated 20 feet (6.1 m) of topsoil have made it

9222-497: The "Advantage Cartoon Mega Pack" set. The King Features shorts of the 1960s were made for television and have a closer connection to the comic strip; the backgrounds are drawn in a similar style, Ignatz was present and once again the reluctant object of Krazy's affection. This incarnation of Krazy was made female; Penny Phillips voiced Krazy while Paul Frees voiced Ignatz. The recurring character Officer Bull Pupp also appeared often in this series, though his love of Krazy did not play

9381-621: The "Greek" label stuck with some biographers, and was used by Bill Blackbeard in his introductions to the Krazy and Ignatz volumes in the early 2000s. Later research at the New Orleans Public Library by cartoonist Brian Nelson showed that Herriman's maternal grandmother was born in Havana, Cuba, that all his relatives were listed as "mulatto" on the 1890 census, and that Herriman may also have had Spanish or Native American ancestry. Krazy Kat

9540-422: The "Kat" crept away and said, "Sweet thing". The gender of "Kat" was unclear from the start. Herriman experimented with a decision about the character's gender, but it remained ambiguous and he would refer to "Kat" as "he" or "she" as he saw fit. Herriman incorporated unusual details into the mini-strip's backgrounds such as cacti , pagodas , fanciful vegetation, or anything else that struck his fancy; this became

9699-659: The 20th century; the list included both comic books and comic strips. In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative U.S. postage stamps . In 2004, a picture of Krazy Kat appeared on the wall of the Goofy Goober bar in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie , alongside a picture of Popeye . Krazy Kat continues to inspire artists and cartoonists. Chuck Jones 's Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts, set in

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9858-668: The Arizona desert. Herriman developed ties with members of the film industry; he knew Hal Roach Studio members Tom McNamara and "Beanie" Walker from their newspaper days. Walker, Herriman's best friend, was the head writer on the Our Gang shorts. In the early 1920s, Herriman occasionally drew his strips at the Roach Studio. He met celebrities, including Will Rogers and Frank Capra , and presented them with hand-colored drawings. He loved Charlie Chaplin's films, and reviewed The Gold Rush in

10017-663: The California Oil Museum. The population was 30,657 at the 2020 census , up from 29,321 at the 2010 census . The area of what today is Santa Paula was inhabited by the Chumash , a Native American people, before the Spanish arrived. In 1769, the Spanish Portola expedition , first Europeans to see inland areas of California, came down the Santa Clara River Valley from the previous night's encampment near Fillmore and camped in

10176-546: The Czech Republic), whilst the rest were produced by Artransa Film Studios in Sydney, Australia. The cartoons were initially televised interspersed with Beetle Bailey (some of which were also produced by Artransa) and Snuffy Smith cartoons to form a half-hour TV show, The King Features Trilogy . These cartoons helped to introduce Herriman's cat to the baby boomers . 27 of these cartoons have been made available on DVD within

10335-520: The Dingbats' cat. This "basement strip" grew into something much larger than the original cartoon. Krazy Kat first appeared as its own daily comic strip in 1911, and then again in the summer of 1912, although only temporarily at the time. It again became a daily comic strip (running vertically down the side of the page) in October 1913, and was thereafter to remain in syndication for more than thirty years. A black and white, full-page Krazy Kat Sunday comic

10494-713: The Eclipse and Fantagraphics reprints include additional rarities such as older George Herriman cartoons predating Krazy Kat . In 1990, Kitchen Sink Press , in association with Remco Worldservice Books, reprinted two volumes of color Sunday strips dating from 1935 to 1937, but like Eclipse, they collapsed before they could continue the series. The 3-D Zone #5, published by The 3-D Zone in June 1987, features reprints of Krazy Kat strips converted into 3-D, and includes two pairs of red/blue 3-D glasses. The daily strips for 1921 to 1923 were reprinted by Pacific Comics Club, in two series of different sizes. Comics Revue published all of

10653-640: The Navajo deserts in the Southwestern United States. He was drawn to the landscapes of Monument Valley and the Enchanted Mesa , and made Coconino County the location of his Krazy Kat strips. His artwork made much use of Navajo and Mexican themes and motifs against shifting desert backgrounds. He was a prolific cartoonist who produced a large number of strips and illustrated Don Marquis 's books of poetry about Archy and Mehitabel , an alley cat and

10812-449: The Nile"), and pay a sculptor to carve a brick with a love message. When he throws it at her, he is arrested, but she announces her love for him, and from that day on, he throws bricks at her to show his love for her (which would explain why Krazy believes that Ignatz throwing bricks is a sign of love). In another strip, Krazy kisses a sleeping Ignatz, and hearts appear above the mouse's head. In

10971-527: The November 1902 issue of the literary magazine The Bookman , Herriman wrote of his profession self-deprecatingly, while poet La Touche Hancock, in an article in that issue titled "The American Comic and Caricature Art", wrote, "Art and poetry is the characteristic of George Herriman. Were his drawings not so well known one would think he had mistaken his vocation." Herriman's work was increasing in popularity, and he occasionally had front-page, full-color strips for

11130-579: The Plunger . The strip was not as successful as Fisher's, and it ceased to appear after December 26. Mary's Home from College , a precursor to the popular "girl strips" such as Cliff Sterrett 's Polly and Her Pals and John Held Jr.'s Merely Margie , ran from February 19, 1909 until January 4, 1910. His next comic strip, Baron Mooch , starring the titular freeloader, debuted in the Examiner on October 12, 1909. Herriman began two more strips in November 1909 with

11289-556: The Pulitzer supplements, such as Two Jolly Jackies about two unemployed sailors, which began in January 1903. He began drawing the cowboy strip Lariat Pete in September for the McClure syndicate after Two Jolly Jackies was ended. In June, Herriman was employed by the New York World . There, he illustrated Roy McCardell 's commentaries on local events, beginning June 28 and running to

11448-527: The World Color Printing Company— Alexander the Cat and Daniel and Pansy , which both appeared in color. Daniel and Pansy was Herriman's first strip to feature an all-animal cast. This was followed in the Examiner on December 23 by Gooseberry Sprig , about an aristocratic, cigar-smoking duck who had previously and popularly appeared in Herriman's sports cartoons. The bird-populated fantasy

11607-528: The aid of willing Coconino County denizens (without making his intentions clear). Easing Ignatz's task is Krazy Kat's willingness to meet him anywhere at any appointed time, eager to receive a token of affection in the form of a brick to the head. Ignatz is married with three children, though they are rarely seen. Ironically, although Ignatz seems to generally have contempt for Krazy, one strip shows his ancestor, Mark Antony Mouse, fall in love with Krazy's ancestor, an Egyptian cat princess (calling her his "Star of

11766-449: The annoying "Kat" with a brick, and Pupp imprisoned Ignatz. Throughout the late 1920s, Herriman made frequent trips to Kayenta, Arizona , in Navajo country about 25 miles (40 km) from Monument Valley. He also made winter trips to Mexico. The desert, Navajo artwork, and Mexican pottery and architecture became more prominent in Herriman's strips, and he sometimes used Spanish vocabulary in

11925-467: The back of the truck. A former county district attorney, retained by a company attorney, issued a report in March 2015 that provided an explanation of events indicating that the worker may have accidentally combined the chemicals. Later, investigators found that an inspection by a Defense Logistics Agency contractor was scheduled for that morning and officials of the firm had directed the transfer of these hazardous materials to another location. Although

12084-464: The basic concept of the strip is simple, Herriman always found ways to tweak the formula. Ignatz's plans to surreptitiously lob a brick at Krazy's head sometimes succeed; other times Officer Pupp outsmarts Ignatz and imprisons him. The interventions of Coconino County's other anthropomorphic animal residents, and even forces of nature, occasionally change the dynamic in unexpected ways. Other strips have Krazy's imbecilic or gnomic pronouncements irritating

12243-555: The best preserved examples of a mature Southern California landscape of citrus groves. Tourists find a town with a main street reminiscent of Middle America in an agricultural setting preserved through Ventura County's greenbelt agreements. The California Oil Museum, within the historic Union Oil building, is located downtown, as are the Santa Paula Art Museum and Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum. The Santa Paula Mural Project has completed numerous murals depicting

12402-527: The better of each other even when Krazy is not directly involved, as they both enjoy seeing the other played for a fool. He appears slightly less frequently than Krazy and Ignatz. He is also the main character of his own short film series. Beyond these three, Coconino County is populated with an assortment of incidental, recurring characters: Other characters who make semi-frequent appearances are: Krazy Kat evolved from an earlier comic strip of Herriman's, The Dingbat Family , which started in June 1910 and

12561-419: The bully trying to break up the romance. Over time, Nolan's influence waned and new directors, Ben Harrison and Manny Gould, took over the series. By late 1927, they were solely in charge. Winkler's husband, Charles Mintz , slowly began assuming control of the operation. Mintz and his studio (later known as Screen Gems ) began producing the cartoons in sound beginning with 1929's Ratskin . In 1931, he moved

12720-512: The cartoons were first reprinted in 1965 by the Italian magazine Linus , and appeared in the pages of the French monthly Charlie Mensuel starting in 1970. In 1969, Grosset & Dunlap produced a single hardcover collection of selected episodes and sequences spanning the entire length of the strip's run. The Netherlands' Real Free Press published five issues of Krazy Kat Komix in 1974–1976, containing

12879-453: The cause of death was listed as " non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver", and despite his mixed-race heritage, he was listed as "caucasian". The New York Journal-American ran a front-page obituary. His funeral at Little Church of Flowers at Forest Lawn Memorial Park was attended by few. Cartoonist Harry Hershfield spoke at the funeral, saying, "If ever there was a saint on earth, it was George Herriman". According to his request, his body

13038-532: The characters and setting of the Herriman comic strip. Instead, the feline in Nolan's cartoons was a male cat whose design and personality both reflected Felix the Cat . This is probably due to the fact that Nolan himself was a former employee of the Pat Sullivan studio. Other Herriman characters appeared in the Nolan cartoons at first, though similarly altered: Kwakk Wakk was at times Krazy's paramour, with Ignatz often

13197-401: The city was 35.2% White , 5.41% African American , 1.02% Native American , 0.70% Asian , 0.19% Pacific Islander , .37% from other races , and 4.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 61.2% of the population. There were 8,136 households, out of which 44.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.1% were married couples living together, 13.4% had

13356-493: The city would create new jobs and increase tax revenue for the cash-strapped city. When the project was first proposed in 1997, concerns were raised that Limoneira was beginning to develop their extensive holdings of prime farmland. Company officials claimed that 83% of the Teague-McKevett parcel was either unsuitable for agriculture or had a low value because of poor soil and drainage. The Santa Clara Valley represents one of

13515-604: The city's history. The monogram "SP" on South Mountain above the city is visible from around town and along Highway 126. Students from Santa Paula High School first etched the letters into the hills in December 1922. The city changed from an at-large city council election to a district system on 2023 under the threat of a lawsuit under the California Voting Rights Act . The mayor's seat, which rotates among them, did not change. The Santa Paula Water Recycling Facility

13674-521: The city. Homes are often bungalows, cottages, Victorian -style houses and craftsman homes. Santa Paula has a warm-summer mediterranean climate ( Csb ) typical of the coastal Southern California with warm summers and cool winters. Bears can come down out of the hills and roam in neighboring agricultural areas and occasionally come into residential neighborhoods. Mountain lions have periodically been spotted in residents' backyards. The 2010 United States Census reported that Santa Paula had

13833-497: The daily strips from September 8, 1930 through December 31, 1934. In 2007, Fantagraphics offered a one-shot reprint of daily strips from 1910s and 1920s, and plans a more complete reprinting of the daily strip in the future. Scattered Sundays and dailies have appeared in several collections, including the Grosset & Dunlap book reprinted by Nostalgia Press , but the most readily available sampling of Sundays and dailies from throughout

13992-544: The dialogue. Herriman did little work on these excursions, and it is likely that he drew his strips in hurried bursts when in Hollywood. Stumble Inn finished in late 1925, and it was replaced with the domestic strip Us Husbands (with Mistakes Will Happen as a " topper " strip), which ran until the end of that year. In 1928, Herriman took over the strip Embarrassing Moments , which had begun in 1922 and had been drawn by several cartoonists. The strip eventually became Bernie Burns , in which embarrassing moments would happen to

14151-614: The expedition's arrival has been designated California Historical Landmark No. 727. Franciscan missionaries, led by Father Junipero Serra , became active in the area after the founding of the San Buenaventura Mission and established an Asistencia; the town takes its name from the Catholic Saint Paula . Santa Paula is located on the 1843 Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy Mexican land grant. In 1872 Nathan Weston Blanchard purchased 2,700 acres (10.9 km ) and laid out

14310-413: The explosion and resulting fumes caused injuries including the lungs of three fire-fighters who remained off-duty indefinitely, the material scattered around the site was found to be non-hazardous for clean-up purposes. The two fire engines that arrived first were scrapped. A local emergency was declared that lasted for three months. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversaw the decontamination of

14469-419: The fumes from the spill of a highly volatile chemical mixture, and 50 others were exposed to fumes and required treatment at local hospitals. The driver was transporting waste from a temporary storage drum to a processing center when he stopped to take a meal break. The rear of the truck exploded, spreading a white liquid over a 300-by-400-foot area (91 by 122 m) that spontaneously combusted as it dried and

14628-442: The impact Krazy Kat made on them in their formative years. Bobby London 's Dirty Duck was styled after Krazy Kat . Jules Feiffer , Philip Guston , and Hunt Emerson have all had Krazy Kat 's imprint recognized in their work. Larry Gonick 's comic strip Kokopelli & Company is set in "Kokonino County", an homage to Herriman's exotic locale. Chris Ware admires the strip, and his frequent publisher, Fantagraphics ,

14787-416: The intent was to eventually reprint every Sunday Krazy Kat , but this planned series was aborted when Eclipse ceased business in 1992. Beginning in 2002, Fantagraphics resumed reprinting Sunday Krazy Kat s where Eclipse left off; in 2008, their tenth release completed the run with 1944. Fantagraphics then reissued, in the same format, the strips previously printed in Eclipse's now out-of-print volumes. Both

14946-472: The introduction to the first collection of the strip in book form. These critical appraisals by Seldes and cummings were influential in establishing Krazy Kat ' s reputation as a work of genius . Though Krazy Kat was only a modest success during its initial run, in more recent years, many modern cartoonists have cited the strip as a major influence. Krazy Kat takes place in a heavily stylized version of Coconino County, Arizona , with Herriman filling

15105-547: The last five (or so) years of the strip, Ignatz's feelings of animosity for Krazy were noticeably downplayed. While earlier, one got the sense of his taking advantage of Krazy's willingness to be "bricked", now one gets the sense of Ignatz and Krazy as chummy co-conspirators against Pupp, with Ignatz at times quite aware of the positive way Krazy interprets his missiles. A police dog who loves Krazy, and always tries (sometimes successfully) to thwart Ignatz's desires to pelt Krazy Kat with bricks. Officer Pupp and Ignatz often try to get

15264-416: The last five in color – reflecting the shift in the original newspaper version); the last three paperbacks comprise the black and white Sundays already reprinted by Eclipse, presenting three years worth of material per volume. Starting from 2019, Fantagraphics began to publish a new collection of Krazy Kat Sundays. The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz , a series of deluxe hardcovers, whose format

15423-481: The leading humor magazines of the day, Judge , accepted some of his cartoons. Between June 15 and October 26, 1901, eleven of his cartoons appeared in that magazine's pages, in the heavily crosshatched style of the day. He often used sequential images in his cartoons, as in the emerging comic strip medium. On September 29 that year, his first real comic strips were published, one in the Pulitzer chain of newspapers on

15582-512: The libretto and designed the costumes and scenario. While it was not a great success, the critics Deems Taylor , Stark Young and Henrietta Straus wrote favorably about it. The strip itself was the subject of an article by literary critic Gilbert Seldes called "Golla, Golla the Comic Strip's Art", which appeared in the May 1922 issue of Vanity Fair . Seldes expanded this article as part of his book on

15741-448: The look and feel are entirely different: firmly in the visual and written style of 1950s talking animal strips for children. Krazy is male in this version of the strip while Ignatz is female. This "Krazy Kat" also made several one-shot appearances in Dell's Four Color Comics series, from 1953 through 1956 (#s 454, 504, 548, 619, 696) and was reprinted in some Gold Key and Page Comics over

15900-544: The loss of life would have been greater if it were not for two motorcycle police officers that noisily warned as many people as possible. A sculpture called "The Watchers" in downtown Santa Paula depicts this act of heroism. In December 2017, the Thomas Fire broke out nearby. While it was the largest wildfire in modern California history at the time, the Santa Ana winds drove the fire toward Ventura and Santa Barbara . Over

16059-560: The magazine Motion Picture Classics in October 1925. Autumn 1922 saw the first daily installment of Stumble Inn , the first non- Krazy Kat strip Herriman had drawn since 1919. A verbose strip whose Sundays were often overrun with prose, its lead characters were Uriah and Ida Stumble, who rented rooms to an assortment of strange characters. The daily strip was short-lived, but the Sundays edition lasted three years. From August 1925 until September 1929, King Features required that Herriman design

16218-621: The mouse so much that he goes to seek out a brick in the final panel. Even self-referential humor is evident—in one strip, Officer Pupp, having arrested Ignatz, berates Herriman for not having finished drawing the jailhouse. Public reaction at the time was mixed; many were puzzled by its iconoclastic refusal to conform to linear comic strip conventions and straightforward gags, but publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst loved Krazy Kat , and it continued to appear in his papers throughout its run, sometimes only by his direct order. Simple-minded, curious, mindlessly happy and perpetually innocent,

16377-485: The newspaper industry as an illustrator and engraver. He moved on to cartooning and comic strips—a medium then in its infancy—and drew a variety of strips until he introduced his most famous character, Krazy Kat, in his strip The Dingbat Family in 1910. A Krazy Kat daily strip began in 1913, and from 1916 the strip also appeared on Sundays. It was noted for its poetic, dialect-heavy dialogue; its fantastic, shifting backgrounds; and its bold, experimental page layouts. In

16536-458: The next decade. The strip went through several format changes during its run, each of which impacted the artwork and the narratives that the form of the strip could accommodate. What follows are the landmarks, which can also help to date the era of a given strip. In 1934, in the live-action film Babes in Toyland , starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy , the cat playing the fiddle (Peter Gordon)

16695-455: The opportunity to think. His favorite game was poker, which he particularly enjoyed playing with his fellow cartoonists. Herriman had a great love of animals, and had a large number of dogs and cats; he had five dogs and thirteen cats in 1934. He usually kept to a vegetarian diet, except when it made him feel too weak, and he refused to ride horses. He so admired Henry Ford 's pacifist stance that he would only buy Ford automobiles. He purchased

16854-539: The page with caricatured flora and fauna, and rock formation landscapes typical of the Painted Desert . These backgrounds tend to change dramatically between panels, even while the characters remain stationary. While the local geography is fluid, certain sites were stable—and featured so often in the strip as to become iconic. These latter included Officer Pupp's jailhouse and Kolin Kelly's brickyard. A Southwestern visual style

17013-405: The popular arts, The Seven Lively Arts (1924), in which Seldes argued against conservative tendencies that excluded artists in the popular arts, such as Herriman and Chaplin, from being considered alongside traditional artists. Krazy Kat was the subject of a chapter entitled "The Krazy Kat That Walks by Himself", which is the most famous piece of writing about the strip and the earliest example of

17172-641: The population) lived in households, 44 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 89 (0.3%) were institutionalized. There were 8,347 households, out of which 4,087 (49.0%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 4,767 (57.1%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,267 (15.2%) had a female householder with no husband present, 650 (7.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 540 (6.5%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships , and 45 (0.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships . 1,331 households (15.9%) were made up of individuals, and 678 (8.1%) had someone living alone who

17331-417: The population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 13,660 people (46.6%) lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 28,598 people, 8,137 households, and 6,435 families residing in the city. The population density was 6,214.6 inhabitants per square mile (2,399.5/km ). There were 8,341 housing units at an average density of 1,812.6 per square mile (699.8/km ). The racial makeup of

17490-539: The post– Plessy v. Ferguson U.S., in which " separate but equal " racial segregation was enshrined, people of mixed race had to choose to identify themselves as either black or white. Herriman seems to have identified himself as white. According to comics academic Jeet Heer , his early work is "replete with black caricatures", such as Musical Mose , in which the lead character, an African-American musician, wishes his "color would fade". Racial ambivalence crept into Krazy Kat , such as on two occasions where Krazy's black fur

17649-453: The same sporting events and became close friends. In 1924, Tad called Herriman "one of the best sporting artists in the world" and regretted that Herriman no longer did that kind of work. Herriman continued with Hearst until June 1905, when he left the paper, possibly because of the new sports editor's unsympathetic attitude to cartoonists. He returned to Los Angeles in the latter half of 1905. In California, Herriman continued to mail in work to

17808-421: The second verse. In 1994, in the live-action film Pulp Fiction , starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson ; Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, and Officer Pupp make an appearance, printed on a pale blue T-shirt worn by Jackson's character Jules, who had to hastily change his clothes after an accidental shooting in a car. In 1999, Krazy Kat was rated #1 in a Comics Journal list of the best American comics of

17967-490: The series ended. With added sound effects and music, these (originally silent) cartoons were in periodic reissue also during the 1930s and 1940s, and ended up being syndicated to television in the 1950s. In 1925, animation pioneer Bill Nolan decided to bring Krazy to the screen again. Nolan intended to produce the series under Associated Animators, but when it dissolved, he sought distribution from Margaret J. Winkler . Unlike earlier adaptations, Nolan did not base his shorts on

18126-535: The short Lil' Ainjil , the only Mintz work that was intended to reflect Herriman's comic strip. However, Klein was "terribly disappointed" with the resulting cartoon, and the Mickey-derivative Krazy returned. In 1939, Mintz became indebted to his distributor, Columbia Pictures , and subsequently sold his studio to them. The studio released its final Krazy Kat cartoon, The Mouse Exterminator , in January 1940 as part of their Phantasies series, which

18285-470: The site. The material was neutralized and solidified on site and taken to a landfill. On August 7, 2015, a Ventura County grand jury indicted the Santa Clara Waste Water Co., the affiliated Green Compass and nine company executives and managers. Following the indictment, the district attorney had the nine defendants arrested on suspicion of several felonies and misdemeanors, including filing

18444-528: The slapstick simplicity of the general premise, the detailed characterization, combined with Herriman's visual and verbal creativity, made Krazy Kat one of the first comics to be widely praised by intellectuals and treated as "serious" art. Art critic Gilbert Seldes wrote a lengthy panegyric to the strip in 1924, calling it "the most amusing and fantastic and satisfactory work of art produced in America today". Poet E. E. Cummings , another Herriman admirer, wrote

18603-432: The staff to California and ultimately changed the design of Krazy Kat. The new character bore even less resemblance to the one in the newspapers. Mintz's Krazy Kat was, like many other early 1930s cartoon characters, imitative of Mickey Mouse , and usually engaged in slapstick comic adventures with his look-alike girlfriend and loyal pet dog. In 1936, animator Isadore Klein, with the blessing of Mintz, set to work creating

18762-408: The strip on July 26, 1910, but quickly went back to hand-lettering. On August 10, 1910, Herriman retitled the strip The Family Upstairs . The original title returned after the strip of November 15, 1911, when the Dingbats' building was demolished to make room for a department store and they and their upstairs nemeses parted paths. Critics do not regard the strip highly, but it provided the vehicle for

18921-683: The strip regularly. More recent scholars and authors have seen the strip as reflecting the Dada movement and prefiguring postmodernism . In the summer of 1934, the Krazy Kat Sunday page was temporarily shelved, although the daily strip continued as before. Beginning in June 1935, Krazy Kat 's Sunday page returned, and was thereafter published in full color. Though the number of newspapers carrying it dwindled in its last decade, Herriman continued to draw Krazy Kat , creating roughly 3,000 comics in total, until his death in April 1944 (the final Sunday page

19080-513: The strip's main motif and dynamic, Ignatz Mouse pelted Krazy with bricks, which the naïve, androgynous Kat interpreted as symbols of love. As the strip progressed, a love triangle developed between Krazy, Ignatz, and Offisa Pupp. Pupp made it his mission to prevent Ignatz from throwing bricks at Krazy, or to jail him for having done so, but his efforts were perpetually impeded because Krazy wished to be struck by Ignatz's bricks. Herriman lived most of his life in Los Angeles, but made frequent trips to

19239-447: The strip's popularity as Hearst had hoped. In addition to Seldes and Cummings, contemporary admirers of Krazy Kat included T. S. Eliot , Willem de Kooning , H. L. Mencken , P. G. Wodehouse , Jack Kerouac , Robert Benchley and artist Paul Nash . In 1931, Nash wrote that "no country has produced, in the narrow limits of this medium, a fantastic philosopher such as George Herriman". Reportedly, president Woodrow Wilson also read

19398-577: The strip's run is Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman , published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in 1986. It includes a detailed biography of Herriman and was, for a long time, the only in-print book to republish Krazy Kat strips from after 1940. Although it contains over 200 strips, including many color Sundays, it is light on material from 1923 to 1937. Small selections of dailies appear in literary anthologies published by The Green Bag . 1969-060c Krazy and Ignatz: The Komplete Kat Komics (series): Bill Blackbeard, ed. Each of these volumes reprints

19557-510: The strip's title character drifts through life in Coconino County without a care. Krazy's dialogue is a highly stylized argot ("A fowl konspirissy – is it pussible?") phonetically evoking a mixture of English, French, Spanish, Yiddish and other dialects, often identified as George Herriman's own native New Orleans dialect, Yat . Often singing and dancing to express the Kat's eternal joy, Krazy

19716-411: The summer of 1916. Herriman may have visited after reading an article by Theodore Roosevelt in 1913, but he may have gone earlier—the desert Coconino County , Arizona, that became the backdrop to Krazy Kat was first mentioned in a 1911 The Dingbat Family strip, though the real Coconino County was located further southwest than Herriman's fanciful version. The Dingbat Family finished in 1916 and

19875-407: The title character. The strip appeared in few papers, and after it ended in 1932, Herriman worked only on Krazy Kat , although he provided illustrations for Don Marquis' popular Archy and Mehitabel , a series of books of poetry about a cat and a cockroach. In 1930, Herriman sold his first Hollywood home to a friend and moved his family to 2217 Maravilla Drive, a Spanish-style mansion atop a hill. It

20034-512: The topography of the Santa Clara River Valley which can serve as a funnel for Santa Ana winds . Mandatory evacuations were ordered for a wide swath of over 1,800 homes surrounding the fire area, affecting over 7,500 residences. A vacuum truck exploded at the Santa Clara Waste Water plant in the early morning hours of November 18, 2014. Two workers were injured in the initial explosion, three responding fire-fighters were injured by

20193-436: The townsite. Considered the founder of the community, he planted seedling orange trees in 1874. Several small oil companies owned by Wallace Hardison , Lyman Stewart and Thomas R. Bard were combined and became the Union Oil Company in 1890. Santa Paula was incorporated in April 1902. The first mayor was Lewis Arthur Hardison. In April 1911, Gaston Méliès moved his Star Film Company from San Antonio, Texas to

20352-445: The treated wastewater contained contaminants called chlorides that must be removed under state law before being discharged into the Santa Clara River. The Santa Paula Fire Department provided fire protection and emergency medical services at the basic life support level (BLS) from two fire stations. American Medical Response (AMR) is the paramedic ambulance provider for the city. On July 8, 2018, The Santa Paula Fire Department

20511-442: The vicinity of Santa Paula on August 12 , near one of the creeks coming into the valley from the north (most likely Santa Paula Creek). Fray Juan Crespi , a Franciscan missionary traveling with the expedition, had previously named the valley Cañada de Santa Clara . He noted that the party traveled about 9 to 10 miles (14 to 16 km) that day and camped near a large native village, which he named San Pedro Amoliano . The site of

20670-552: The whole page in the strip's layout. The strips were unlike anything else on the comics page; spontaneous, formally daring, yet impeccably composed. Herriman visited Monument Valley in Arizona and similar places in New Mexico and southern Utah , and incorporated the distinct forms of the desert landscape into his strips. The Enchanted Mesa of New Mexico first appeared in Krazy Kat in

20829-450: The world of the arts. The character debuted in film in 1916. The first animated films starring a cat were produced by Hearst's International Film Service , though without Herriman's direct involvement. In 1922, Adolph Bolm choreographed a jazz-pantomime Krazy Kat ballet written by John Alden Carpenter . It was first performed in New York in 1922 by Ballet Intime , and Herriman illustrated

20988-475: The year's end. Herriman still produced syndicate work, such as Major Ozone's Fresh Air Crusade for the World Color Printing Company beginning January 2, 1904. Another of Herriman's obsessive characters, the Major traveled the world in an unsuccessful search for the purest air and spouted poetic dialogue. Major Ozone was so popular that it soon was given the supplement's front page. The same month, Herriman moved from

21147-410: Was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.3 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 41,651, and the median income for a family was $ 45,419. Males had a median income of $ 32,165 versus $ 25,818 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 15,736. About 12.2% of families and 14.7% of the population were below

21306-405: Was 31.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.5 males. There were 8,749 housing units at an average density of 1,859.1 per square mile (717.8/km ), of which 4,694 (56.2%) were owner-occupied, and 3,653 (43.8%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.1%. 15,528 people (53.0% of

21465-420: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.50. There were 6,684 families (80.1% of all households); the average family size was 3.85. The population was spread out, with 8,722 people (29.7%) under the age of 18, 3,295 people (11.2%) aged 18 to 24, 8,012 people (27.3%) aged 25 to 44, 6,193 people (21.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 3,099 people (10.6%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

21624-549: Was Creole, and speculated that he may have "Negro blood" in him, as he had " kinky hair ". The friend said that Herriman wore a hat to hide his hair, which may have been an attempt to pass as white . Herriman said that he dreamed of being reborn a Navajo. On his death certificate, he was listed as "Caucasian", and his daughter Mabel had his father's birthplace listed as Paris and his mother's as Alsace-Lorraine . Sociologist Arthur Asa Berger made Herriman's mixed-race heritage known in 1971. While researching for Herriman's entry for

21783-641: Was a precursor to Krazy Kat , and many of its characters reappeared in the later strip. In 1910, the sports editor of the New York Evening Journal called Herriman back to New York to cover for Tad Dorgan who was in San Francisco covering the "Fight of the Century" between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries . Six days after arriving in New York, Herriman began The Dingbat Family , starring E. Pluribus Dingbat and his family. Herriman used typed lettering on

21942-552: Was adorned with paintings of Southwest and Native themes, and had a Mexican-style garden paved with flagstones and decorated with painted pots and tropical plants. Herriman later bought the lot across the street and turned it into a public park. The 1930s were a period of tragedy for Herriman. On September 29, 1931, his wife Mabel died after an automobile accident, and in 1939, his youngest daughter Bobbie died unexpectedly at 31. After his wife's death, Herriman never remarried and lived in Los Angeles with his cats and dogs. He developed

22101-545: Was also the last screen adaptation of Krazy Kat to be made during Herriman's lifetime. In the 1960s, some of the later shorts were colorized and released on Super 8mm film. As had been the case with the animated Krazy Kat shorts of the silent era, Herriman was not involved in the making of the sound shorts of the 1930s. King Features produced 50 Krazy Kat cartoons from 1962 to 1964, most of which were created at Gene Deitch 's Rembrandt Films in Prague , Czechoslovakia (now

22260-685: Was always my goal. -- Charles M. Schulz in 1967 Krazy Kat The strip focuses on the curious relationship between a guileless, carefree, simple-minded cat named Krazy and a short-tempered mouse named Ignatz. Krazy nurses an unrequited love for the mouse, but Ignatz despises Krazy and constantly schemes to throw bricks at Krazy's head, which Krazy interprets as a sign of affection, uttering grateful replies such as "Li'l dollink, allus f'etful", or "Li'l ainjil". A third principal character, Officer Bull Pupp, often appears and tries to "protect" Krazy by thwarting Ignatz' attempts and imprisoning him. Later on, Officer Pupp falls in love with Krazy. Despite

22419-409: Was announced as "the Examiner ' s cartoonist" on August 21. His artwork began to appear on nearly every page, resulting in greatly increased sales for the newspaper. In October, he stopped working for World Color. Following the success of Bud Fisher 's daily strip A. Mutt , which debuted in late 1907, Herriman began a similarly sports-themed daily strip starting December 10 called Mr. Proones

22578-405: Was built in 2010 for $ 63 million to treat the city sewage . Santa Paula Water, a partnership of two corporations, financed, built and operated the facility under the agreement with the city. The city purchased the facility for $ 70.8 million in 2015 to take control and end a dispute over the failure of the plant to sufficiently remove chlorides. Although the new plant used modern treatment methods ,

22737-541: Was cremated and his remains were scattered over Monument Valley. On June 25, 1944, two months after Herriman's death, the last of his completed Krazy Kat strips, a full-page Sunday, was printed. At the time, Hearst usually engaged new cartoonists when the artists of popular strips quit or died, but he made an exception for Herriman, as he felt that no one could take his place. Herriman was described as self-deprecatingly modest, and he disliked being photographed. The New York Journal-American ' s obituary described him as

22896-451: Was disbanded after serving Santa Paula for 115 years. The Ventura County Fire Department now provides fire protection services for the City of Santa Paula. Both fire stations used by Santa Paula Fire were transferred to Ventura County Fire. The Santa Paula Police Department provides law enforcement services for the city. The overall crime rate is low. Historically, education was provided by

23055-508: Was displayed in art galleries. Critics found Herriman's work difficult to classify and contextualize; Seldes, E. E. Cummings , and writers Adam Gopnik and Robert Warshow were among critics who tempered their enthusiasm for the strip with qualifications about its perceived naïveté and its "lowbrow" origins on the comic strip page. The strip has had a lasting influence on a large number of cartoonists. Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell calls Krazy Kat one of his foremost influences, and

23214-401: Was dyed white. Ignatz falls in love with the whitened Krazy, only to return to hatred and brick-throwing when the truth is revealed. Similarly, in an oft-repeated joke, Ignatz would accidentally become covered with coal dust and would be spurned by the normally love-struck Krazy. In one such episode, a brick thrown by the blackened Ignatz hits Krazy, who declares, "A lil Eetiopium Mice, black like

23373-470: Was ever made or signed. Despite its relatively low popularity among the general public, Krazy Kat gained a wide following among intellectuals. In 1922, a jazz ballet based on the comic was produced and scored by John Alden Carpenter ; though the performance played to sold-out crowds on two nights and was given positive reviews in The New York Times and The New Republic , it failed to boost

23532-414: Was identified in an internal investigation by the firm in the months following the disaster. They claimed that the chemical was being using as a water treatment agent for the first time and was stored in the same type of storage container as wastewater. The worker combined the chemical with wastewater in the vacuum truck where the chemical interacting with organic material caused an explosion that blew off

23691-425: Was largely due to Hearst's editorial policies, in that the " lowbrow " readership at whom he aimed his papers was unlikely to appreciate Herriman's style of work, though Hearst personally championed the strip. Following Herriman's death, the strip was discontinued, unlike most popular strips which were continued by other cartoonists after their creators' deaths. His stature was such that decades after his death, his work

23850-429: Was later renamed The Family Upstairs . This comic chronicled the Dingbats' attempts to avoid the mischief of the mysterious unseen family living in the apartment above theirs and to unmask that family. Herriman would complete the daily comics about the Dingbats, and finding himself with time left over in his 8-hour work day , filled the bottom of the strip with slapstick drawings of the upstairs family's mouse preying upon

24009-518: Was launched on April 23, 1916. Possibly due to the objections of editors, who did not think it was suitable for the comics sections, Krazy Kat originally appeared in the Hearst papers' art and drama sections. It has been claimed that Hearst himself, however, enjoyed the strip so much that he gave Herriman a lifetime contract and guaranteed the cartoonist complete creative freedom, although according to Michael Tisserand's biography on Herriman (2016), there exists no proof that this alleged lifetime contract

24168-550: Was liked by famous artists and writers such as Willem de Kooning , Picasso and Edwin Denby , and later by E. E. Cummings , Jack Kerouac and Umberto Eco . During the first few years of publication, Krazy Kat ' s humor changed from slapstick to a more vaudevillian kind. The shifting backgrounds became increasingly bizarre, presaging things to come. The strip expanded to a full-page black-and-white Sunday strip on April 23, 1916. Herriman made full use of his imagination and used

24327-556: Was popular with intellectuals, artists and critics, and in the 1920s Herriman's modernist touches received praise. In 1921, composer John Alden Carpenter, who had long been an admirer of Herriman's work, approached him to collaborate on a Krazy Kat ballet. President Woodrow Wilson refused to miss any installment of Krazy Kat , and would take it into cabinet meetings. Writer E. B. White praised Herriman's illustrations for Archy and Mehitabel . Cartoonist Edward Sorel wrote that Krazy Kat ' s lack of popularity later in its run

24486-624: Was published exactly two months later, on June 25). Hearst promptly canceled the strip after the artist died, because, contrary to the common practice of the time, he did not want to see a new cartoonist take over. The comic strip was animated several times (see filmography below). The earliest Krazy Kat shorts were produced by Hearst, starting with the release of Introducing Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse in February 1916. More than 25 similar animated silent shorts were made until August 1917. They were produced under Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial and later

24645-432: Was replaced by Baron Bean ' s debut the next day. The strip's title character, The Baron, was an impoverished English nobleman, a tramp inspired by Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin . He and his valet Grimes would plot ways to get by. Herriman later introduced the main characters' wives, and after a run as a domestic strip, with occasional appearances of characters from Krazy Kat's world, it ended in January 1919. It

24804-408: Was replaced the next day by Now Listen Mabel , which was about a young man courting a young woman; he would be caught in a compromising situation, which he would try to explain away with "Now listen Mabel ..." The strip lasted until that December. It happens that in America irony and fantasy are practised in the major arts by only one or two men, producing high-class trash; and Mr Herriman, working in

24963-424: Was reported burning at the top of South Mountain between Santa Paula and Somis and expanded throughout that evening. Heavily influenced by 20–30 mph (32–48 km/h) winds within the canyons, the fire became a full scale conflagration, growing from 50 to 750 acres (20 to 304 ha) inside an hour, to over 4,000 acres (16 km ) after several hours. The fire worked its way north towards Santa Paula where

25122-399: Was sensitive to shock, pressure and the application of water or oxygen. The tires of the first fire truck on the scene and the boots of three firefighters sparked small explosions when they drove and walked over the substance as they went to help the injured workers. The incident evolved into a disaster when later in the morning additional materials began to burn and explode, which resulted in

25281-623: Was ten, Herriman and his family moved to Los Angeles , where he grew up south of downtown near Main Street and Washington Boulevard . His father worked there as a tailor. Herriman attended the Catholic boys' school St. Vincent's College (now Loyola High School ). Soon after graduating in 1897, he sold a sketch of the Hotel Petrolia in Santa Paula to the Los Angeles Herald . This landed him

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