Along with Little Nemo and Thimble Theatre, one of the three greatest comic strips of all time. More like cinema than any other. Fully explored and exploded the existing boundaries of what you could do in the context of a comic strip.

Unquestionably the most brilliant and most complex comic strip in the history of the medium. Some people just don't get it, which I can understand because it's a more subtle form of humor that one wouldn't expect to see in a comic strip, so I guess it can catch some people off-guard. But to its credit, everyone from President Woodrow Wilson and James Joyce to Picasso and Charlie Chaplin were fans of it. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's simply the story of Krazy Kat, who, though androgynous, is in love with the cynical Ignatz Mouse. Ignatz spends all his time and energy in throwing bricks at the poor Kat, who in turn interprets the brick as an expression of Ignatz's love (because Krazy is descended from Kleopatra Kat, at whom Marcantoni Mouse once threw a brick upon which was chiselled a love note- but Krazy is the only one who knows this, leaving Ignatz to wonder why the Kat actually masochistically enjoys being hit with bricks). Officer Pupp, who loves Krazy, is also ignorant of Krazy's ancestry and therefore views the brick-tossing as an act of violence and puts Ignatz in jail every time he catches him throwing bricks at Krazy. (And I love the irony of Ignatz being punished for throwing a brick, which Pupp considers a symbol of evil, by being put in a jail made OF bricks!) It's complicated, but therein lies the beauty of the strip and the subtle, pitying, almost Beckettian irony of its humor: it is of the highest importance that none of the three characters ever understand the other's point-of-view. To Krazy, Ignatz is an angelic messanger of love. To Officer Pupp, Krazy is the angelic one and Ignatz is a heartless bully. To Ignatz, the Kat really is krazy and Officer Pupp is an oppressor. It is inevitable; just like in Greek tragedy, fate has sentenced them to a perpetual state of misunderstanding. Also, the writing in Krazy Kat is impeccable: the dialogue is made up of vernacular, dialect, wordplay and foreign languages, an "Esperanto of the funnies" as Maurice Horn called it- and this is juxtaposed with formal narration- dialogue worthy of Ionesco or Lewis Carroll, narration posessing an elegance worthy of Shakespeare, and a surrealist, constantly metamorphosing landscape worthy of Picasso combine to create the highest pinaccle of brilliance ever achieved in comic strips. George Herriman was an absolute genius and all subsequent cartoonists owe nearly everything to him. Walt Disney called it "a source of inspiration to thousands of artists", and Bill Watterson (creator of "Calvin and Hobbes", the greatest post-Krazy comic strip) has often written of his awe for Herriman's magnum opus. I don't care if some people don't understand it, I do and so "Krazy Kat" is a joy to read!!

If Pogo was the father of all successful modern strips, Krazy Kat was the mother. Five for old times sake.