INSIDE LOOK -- THE BULLPEN OF EARLY HEARST CARTOONISTS - II: Herriman

 ... And Vintage Promotional Art, Bio, Photos
of George Herriman

by Rick Marschall 

Recent posts commenced two threads: material from a rare 1917 promotion book for William Randolph Hearst's International Feature Service, one of several syndicate operations under the umbrella of the newly organized King Features. We shared photos and bios of Tom McNamara ("Us Boys"), the cartoonist whose copy we worked from; and of Rudolph Block (Bruno Lessing), the guiding force -- eminence grise, by much evidence -- behind the first 20 years of Hearst's Sunday funnies. 

In this post, Yesterday's Papers will share the book's pages devoted to George Herriman. A photograph of the pensive cartoonist, and special art created for the book. He is credited in the text as the creator of Baron Bean, the daily strip that was separate from Krazy Kat -- starring human characters; never a crossover; never appearing in color supplements. It was a wonderful strip, as most of Herriman's creations were, of course, about a latter-day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza pair: delusional fellows drifting in, and further in, to absurd situations. As with all of Herriman's creations, comic obsessions fueled the premises of the daily strip. 

I offer apologies -- not that I had anything to do with it -- for the promotional copy the accompanied the artwork. It is more insipid than third-rate public-relations blather. And worse yet, the Hearst writer (perhaps John P Medbury, or K C Beaton, or Jack Lait, or a lesser light) fashioned the inanities in rhyme. Little that would have informed a student of the day... and certainly not scholars of our day.

The other piece is from 11 years later, from a elegantly designed and produced book touting the impressive stable of talent that could be accessed by subscriptions to the New York Journal. The "chief" it highlights is not Block but the Journal's editor William A Curley (who, as an editor in Chicago, had inspired characters in The Front Page) and Hearst's principal editorial writer Arthur Brisbane. The book appears to be a bragging-piece, perhaps issued for distribution at the annual American Newspaper Editors Association (ANPA) convention in New York. "The Journal has twice the circulation of its nearest evening-paper competitor..."; etc.

It is to be noticed that in each photograph of George Herriman he wore his iconic hat. It was once supposed, after his death, that he was embarrassed by kinky hair, leading to a belief that he was partly Black. Some years ago I shared with the comic community a piece of "news" debunking that assumption. The political cartoonist Karl Hubenthal, who knew Herriman, was surprised at that idea, and laughed as he told me that Herriman neither said nor hinted at such a thing, but was rather concerned to conceal, when he could, a wen -- a growth or sebacious cyst on his head that he could not have removed. (And in fact I own several photo portraits of Herriman without a hat.)

I love the fact that as early as 1928, Krazy Kat was already being referred to as "immortal." Surely it is. 

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GEORGE HERRIMAN DISCUSSED ANIMALS IN COMICS

 

... and shows how he drew his characters.

by Rick Marschall

Some people are shy; some are "reserved"; some are introverted. They are all different personality traits. The other end of the spectrum has as many variations. It is said that actors -- superficially the most outgoing of people -- tend to be very private folks, quiet and even withdrawn in their moments away from cameras and stage lights. They hide behind their characters.

Cartoonists often occupy similar cubby-holes. Dik Browne once observed to me the dichotomy: These creators who might entertain millions, making many of them laugh or be thrilled, or otherwise be interested in their creative efforts and views of life... do not live in the limelight, except vicariously. "For the most part, we are hermits, seldom even meeting the people who read what we create." Dik at the time had a studio in his basement, near the laundry machines, with clotheslines crisscrossed over his head.

One of cartooning's most famous recluses, relatively successful at anonymity, was George Herriman. That his classic Krazy Kat was notoriously enigmatic added to the interest in his essential talent, inspiration, muses. The desert opus was either psychologically deep and comprised of nuances, or simple nonsense unconcerned with discernment of logic or illogic (I am reminded of Mark Twain's epigraph in Huckleberry Finn: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.) 

Well, we don't really know (as if should make a difference to us: Herriman surely meant to amuse, not to befuddle) and he was not a congenital obscurantist. The majority of his creations were of homely domestic themes (Us Husbands; Alexander the Cat) or of his lifelong specialty, humorous obsessions (Major Ozone the Fresh-Air Fiend; Musical Mose). I proposed an examination -- not a psychoanalysis -- of these "fingerprints" of Herriman as elements of a biography of Herriman I proposed (along with the complete Kat) to to publishers before a major biography and several compilations actually were published, in some instances by the same publishers. But the themes remain, surprisingly, unexplored. In other books I have published and in numerous articles (including, very superficially, here) I have scratched the surface of the best-known anonymous cartoonist, George Herriman.

One speed-bump is the work of publicists of the past. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, Herriman was in the continuous employ of William Randolph Hearst. Hosannas are due the virtual godfather of the American Comic Strip, and his treatment of George Herriman is a prime reason: benign neglect... a latter-day patronage much like the Medicis treated Michelangelo or Prince Esterhazy was  patron of the composer Haydn. After the 1920s almost no paper outside the Hearst chain ran Krazy Kat. Herriman participated in the Jazz Ballet of 1924, and illustrated Don Marquis's archy and mehitabel, but otherwise he lost money for Hearst... and created timeless works of comic art at the highest level.

But we still want to lift the veil. And there were those darn public-relations writers and publicity departments. How much of what they told us -- little enough anyway -- was true? 

I have discovered a publicity series cooked up by the King Features (Hearst) publicity gnomes in the early 1930s. They are articles "by" cartoonists like Herriman and Elzie Segar (Popeye) explaining their strips, their characters, their inspirations and views of their art. Additionally these articles present sketches including a few "how to draw" examples of their working methods.

Was this for regular newspaper readers, or solely for children? or both? Were they written by the artists themselves? (I suspect not) Were the drawings by the identified cartoonists, in this case Herriman? (I suspect so) It is possible that the cartoonists Herriman and Segar at least approved the texts... and, of course, that they did write the articles.

In any case, this is an unpublished and interesting insight into Krazy Kat's kreation, and at least how the public might have perceived the character and strip apart from the funny section.

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Speaking of publicity departments, in the next installment of Yesterday's Papers I will continue the publication of behind-the-scenes bios and special art circa 1917, begun with treatment of Rudolph Block and Tom McNamara. The next installment will be the focus in that material on... George Herriman.