KRAZY KAT

GEORGE HERRIMAN

Couldn't find anyone posting new music this morning so will have to resort to art . . . .  ha ha ha ha

This is the wonderful George Herriman who created one of the most avant garde cartoons of all time that I loved as a student. ‘Krazy Kat’ featured here. He remains topical because he used policemen as the butt of the joke and they where often coming to a violent end and the cop was always after Krazy Kat and his feelings for Ignatz Mouse and fighting. The three main characters all have indeterminate and often interchangeable genders (sic). The cop was the baddie and Krazy Kat was always trying to outsmart him. ‘Krazy Kat’ featured in daily newspapers and barely spoke recognisable English, which made me laugh even more.

Herriman in 1922

Now, wait for it, Herriman always wore a hat for a reason and, hiding in plain sight as it were, he hid the fact that he was black! Just let that sink in a moment . . . . it was in fact quite obvious once you gazed upon him and because nobody would have hired a black cartoonist at that time, he merely said if it came up that he was white which is what he had put on his birth certificate. Friends notably called him ‘the Greek’! (sic) and he was often described as ‘French, Irish and even Turkish’!? He always wore a hat because he feared his hair was too ‘kinky’ too ‘frizzy’ he thought it would give him away! Let THAT sink in a moment. Never mind the colour of his skin. (He was quite light skinned despite neither parent being white) He worried his frizzy Afro nappy hair would let everyone know he was black! So he always wore a hat. For all of his professional life no-one ever suspected and he became highly successful with his weirdest brand of totally bonkers unique humour. Only after he died did anyone question it and it came out (of course) that he had been black all along!

I LOVE George Herriman!