Herriman, George, 1880–1944, American cartoonist, b. New Orleans into a prominent mixed-race Creole family. He created the fanciful, abstractly drawn comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–44), which featured poetic dialogue and a stark, surrealistic background. Its three main characters, Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, and the bulldog policeman Offissa Pupp, were engaged in an infinite number of situations, but always with the same premise: Krazy Kat would romantically pursue Ignatz Mouse, who inevitably threw bricks at her and would then be put in jail by Offissa Pup. Herriman's work has influenced Charles Schulz, Art Spiegelman, and Robert Crumb, among others.
See biography by M. Tisserand (2017).
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