Maria, Cantiamo -- you got a mouse in your pocket?

[SOURCE]
George Herriman (1880 - 1944)
Lately I resumed my tease with graphics, and have posted some poli-toons ... I wondered myself 'Why now; why this genre?' Then I ran across this article from the LA Times last Sunday. Could I be semi-channeling Dead Cartoonists? ... although not in league, nor class, of those passed; no, no.

" ... [A]pparently the shy cartoonist was working under the delusion that he was appealing to children as well. Editors knew better, often complaining to Hearst: "they don't get it." ... "

The L A Times reports this weekend on the work of " ... George Joseph Herriman [who] was born in 1880 in New Orleans but grew up in a neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles near Washington Boulevard and Main Street.

... It was Hearst alone who ensured Herriman's livelihood. The Chief, as he was called, had a good eye, and he liked what he liked. From 1913 to 1944, the strip appeared in a select handful of Hearst newspapers, often running in the arts and culture section."

... George was "self-depracating" and shy. Some say it is because he felt a bit disposed about his looks. He was heard saying once: ""Any fella with a face like that should keep it a secret from the public, and I can't see how you're going to get any circulation publishing mushes like that!" Not sure if it feigned modesty or just depicts the way of LA's recluse comic, but it effectively portrayed his life's work -- "Krazy Kat.""

Please read the article yourself; [Entire Article HERE] -- it is a study in the art form least understood by the public. Herriman's toon captured the eye of heavy weights in an era that saw two world wars and a Depression. The article concludes:

"Be not harsh with 'Krazy,' " Herriman once wrote. "He is but a shadow himself, caught in the web of this mortal skein." And almost a hundred years later, his equally mortal patron, "Citizen Hearst," will be remembered for protecting a bizarre comic strip that almost no one liked: burlesques of a lovesick cat, unknowingly tormented by a disagreeable, tiny, stick-legged mouse.