There is a heppy lend, fur, fur a-way

[austin_dern]

Bright, sunny morning, for which I was too busy. Afternoon, light rain turning to a heavy rain that came out of nowhere, according to the weather people. No sign of the campus squirrel.

Great and effusive thanks are owed spengler, who finally had enough of my going about icon-less and drew my new persona. Coatis are hard to draw -- the nose rarely looks plausible -- and the George Herriman ``Krazy Kat'' style is very nearly inimitable despite my (and many actual artist's) attempts. But then spengler just goes and hits it, exactly, perfectly right, right off the bat. It's beautiful and I urge everyone to tell spengler that. I haven't been able to find an instance of Herriman ever drawing a coati (it's not clear we were even in Coconino County, Arizona, when he was), but he drew some creatures quite close in shape (Ignatz Mouse and Don Kiyoti particularly), and I'm positive the icon is exactly how it would have looked.

I'm a fan of George Herriman's Krazy Kat -- the undeveloped areas on Spindizzy are taken pretty directly from backgrounds of his strip, right down to the randomization effect changing their appearance every time one looks again -- although it was weird even for a pre-1950 comic strip, and pre-1950 comic strips (a big exception being Percy Crosby's Skippy) generally aren't funny the way modern comics are. It's a dense mix of wordplay and subtly varied scenarios and epic myths told in twelve panels and vaudeville jokes and incredible sight gags and fourth-wall shatterings and awesome graphical design. I think people either bounce right off it or get it, and I get it. I couldn't be happier with this icon. Again, spengler, thank you. I'm just sorry I can't return the favor in kind.

Trivia: Wartime shortages so depleted Confederate railroad supplies that railroads had to lay not just strip track (a bare ribbon of metal), but recycled strips that had previously been removed for metal fatigue. Source: The Railroads of the Confederacy, Robert C. Black III.

Currently Reading: Journey To The Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer, Eldon C. Hall.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Austin, your new icon looks great. I, too, am an admirer of Krazy Kat. My favorite cartoonist is E. C. Segar but I understand that he and Herriman were mutual admirers.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I had thought they were mutual admirers, although I can't find any references to that offhand. Unfortunately most of my life is in a storage locker in Jackson, New Jersey, so I can't do much checking. I've never seen a good biography for either, though, come to think of it. I'd think Patrick McDonnell would at least be working on Herriman's.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I got that information from the "Popeye: The First Fifty Years" book, which my parents gave me as a little kid because I loved the cartoons. That's what introduced me to the comic strip for the first time. Unfortunately I read it until it fell apart many years ago, but Austin unexpectedly presented me with a new copy (it's long out of print) for my birthday a while back!

Anyway, here's what Bud Sagendorf has to say about the matter:

"Shortly before Herriman's death in the forties, Mrs. Sagendorf and I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with this great man. . . During the entire visit, Herriman discussed nothing but Segar -- his work and his humor. It was apparent that his respect for the cartoonist matched Segar's admiration of him." It goes on to say that, sadly, they never met despite living 18 miles apart -- Sagendorf attributes this to shyness. The book reproduces a cartoon drawn by Segar to announce the birth of his first child. It depicts Joe Stork carring a baby cigarette to the home of the Segars, two anthropomorphized cigars. At the bottom is written: "Apologies to Herriman -- Hey George, I'm glad 'Joe' didn't bring me a whole package!"

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, my goodness, you're right. I had forgotten about Popeye: The First Fifty Years ... alas, I haven't been able to find a copy for myself. spengler, I found the copy I sent bunny_hugger in The Book Garden in Jackson -- next time you're down at the Six Flags Outlet Mall make the trip six miles west on Route 537 and go looking for me, please. It'll be on the north side of the road.

But, boy ... I know how much you loved the book; I have to say that was one of the greatest gift-giving experiences I've had, though, since all the elements -- finding the book on Spring Break at just the right time, remembering both your wedding anniversary (it's this coming week, isn't it?) and your birthday, and such -- lined up just right, and wrapping it up puckishly was a delight. It kind of makes me sorry I'm no good at dating, since I like coming up with little surprise presents like that.

[blither.livejournal.com]

Utterly, utterly cute! I was hoping you'd get an icon. Thank you spengler!

I'd never realized that about the SpinDizzy map, but I've always admired the descriptions. Neat.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes ... the Coconino County descriptions started life as my two-room home on FurToonia, but it just seemed to fit the milieu of Spindizzy better, when we set up the undeveloped rooms. I believe Butterfluff has set up a nature reserve of a few rooms, so that even if the rest of the muck is developed (and if we didn't add new undeveloped rooms) there'd be a spot of the raw Spindizzy left, which seems romantic to me somehow.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I was wondering who drew that nifty icon. Quite nice indeed, and yes, I'm a Krazy Kat fan as well. I have one good-size compliation with commentary, the one edited by McDonnell of the comic strip _Mutts_, which makes frequent attempts at capturing that Herriman vibe.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah (yesh?) Mutts is the strip that comes closest to catching the Krazy Kat vibe. It took me a while to get into it -- the strip started out even more softly unfocused than it is now, and the strip's editor tried ``anonymously'' promoting the strip in rec.arts.comics.strips, which went as well as you'd expect -- but once I got it, I got it.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I've tried telling you how much I like it, but it still seems to fall short.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

although it was weird even for a pre-1950 comic strip, and pre-1950 comic strips (a big exception being Percy Crosby's Skippy) generally aren't funny the way modern comics are.

It's long been a fascination of mine that different times and localities will perceive similar situations and material (such as films and comic strips) in subtly, fundamentally different ways. Indeed, that can be seen even between "mainstream" Hollywood and US "independents"; as I've remarked in the past, the roomie is a prime example of a Hollywood adherent, greatly enjoying what I find to be hideously overstated storylines and obnoxiously pervasive soundtracks.

(I'll admit I'm not at all familiar with Skippy, aside from the Australian TV series. Time to go a-googling)

I recall, for example, one instance on the Lion King LD box set commentary, where - I believe - the director noted that Japanese audiences tended not to react much to the film up until around the time Simba's being castigated by Mufasa for his incursion to the elephants' graveyard. (I'll have to watch the film again to identify the actual spot, I'm afraid)

And yes, the icon does, as they say, rock. I'd have assumed the obvious, had you not explained its genesis.

Bah. I'll have to revisit this comment later on - time's run out for now.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Percy Crosby's Skippy comic strip is kind of the prototype of the thoughtful-child strip, the genre that Charles Schulz mastered and BIll Watterson followed in. It's unfortunately hard to find anymore; Crosby died a long while ago, and was committed to a mental hospital for a while before that, and most of his estate's energies have been taken with trademark infringement lawsuits against Skippy's Peanut Butter. There are a couple dozen strips you can dig out on the web or by reading compendiums of comic strip history, and, rare for a strip that old, most any of them could run today and not seen out of place apart from the level of detail in the illustrations.

[mahto.livejournal.com]

Nice.

I'm guessing you have the Fantagraphics reprints, I trust? ;)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I have indeed been picking them up, although they're more erratic in the bookstores here. Actually, I got a big bunch of the Sunday reprints for my birthday ages ago at Kinokuniya, and have been lounging through one Sunday a week, more or less. They go a long way that rate.