KRAZY BLACK & WHITE WORLD OF GEORGE HERRIMAN HC: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White - Tapa dura

"A fine new biography." -- Wall Street Journal "Essential reading for comics fans and history buffs, Krazy is a roaring success, providing an indispensable new perspective on turn-of-the-century America." -- Kirkus (starred) "A visionary strip. Who drew it, and wherefrom? Tisserand's robust research illuminates, without diminishing, the mystery." -- Roy Blount Jr.. "An athletic feat of scholarship and an effort of love-like one of Ignatz's bricks to the head. Tisserand's immaculately researched and super-readable biography captures the madcap modernist Herriman and the weird America of surreal racial realities and publishing superpowers that shaped his revolutionary art." -- Hillary Chute "George Herriman was a poet in a new visual language. As a man, he was an enigma to match his greatest creation, the sublime Krazy Kat. Michael Tisserand has done a masterful job of illuminating this life lived in the shadowy borderlands of racial identity; along the way he also gives a brilliant overview of the golden years of American cartooning. Krazy is a monumental work of biography about a true American genius." -- Tom Piazza "This is a gripping read at the intersection of pop culture and American history." -- Publisher's Weekly "Tisserand presents a well-researched, engaging biography of George Herriman (1880-1944), creator of the comic strip Krazy Kat...At every step, this work brilliantly re-creates the milieu of its subject's life by shading in the historical context. A significant book for comics scholars and those interesterd in tracing Herriman's development from novice to master of the medium." -- Paul Steins, Library Journal "An absorbing study of a genius with a secret." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune "Rich in original research, New Orleans writer Tisserand's encyclopedia biography of Krazy Kat artist George Herriman is also an enlightening history of modern comics strips." -- Shelf Awareness

FINALIST FOR THE NBCC AWARD IN BIOGRAPHY FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY In the tradition of Schulz and Peanuts, an epic and revelatory biography of Krazy Kat creator George Herriman that explores the turbulent time and place from which he emerged-and the deep secret he explored through his art. The creator of the greatest comic strip in history finally gets his due-in an eye-opening biography that lays bare the truth about his art, his heritage, and his life on America's color line. A native of nineteenth-century New Orleans, George Herriman came of age as an illustrator, journalist, and cartoonist in the boomtown of Los Angeles and the wild metropolis of New York. Appearing in the biggest newspapers of the early twentieth century-including those owned by William Randolph Hearst-Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoons quickly propelled him to fame. Although fitfully popular with readers of the period, his work has been widely credited with elevating cartoons from daily amusements to anarchic art. Herriman used his work to explore the human condition, creating a modernist fantasia that was inspired by the landscapes he discovered in his travels-from chaotic urban life to the Beckett-like desert vistas of the Southwest. Yet underlying his own life-and often emerging from the contours of his very public art-was a very private secret: known as "the Greek" for his swarthy complexion and curly hair, Herriman was actually African American, born to a prominent Creole family that hid its racial identity in the dangerous days of Reconstruction. Drawing on exhaustive original research into Herriman's family history, interviews with surviving friends and family, and deep analysis of the artist's work and surviving written records, Michael Tisserand brings this little-understood figure to vivid life, paying homage to a visionary artist who helped shape modern culture.