August 22nd, 2018

Ask A Cartoonist: Happy Birthday, George Herriman!

by Tea

Today is the birthday of one of my very favorite cartoonists of all time, Mr. George Herriman.

As the creator of Krazy Kat, Herriman left a legacy that has been a huge inspiration to cartoonists for generations. Today, our cartoonists are wishing George Herriman a very happy birthday by sharing their favorite homages and memories!

Bill Griffith, Zippy the Pinhead:

 

 

Patrick McDonnell, Mutts:

 

Bill Holbrook, Kevin & Kell, On the Fastrack, and Safe Havens:

Ron Ferdinand, Dennis the Menace:

Hank included a heartfelt tribute to George Herriman in a series of paintings he did on Pioneering Cartoonists.

 

David Reddick, Intelligent Life:

George Herriman was a huge part of my childhood. Growing up in an antique store as a child I discovered the wonders of stacks of old comic strip pages from bygone newspapers, and there discovered firsthand, the wonderously surreal vision of George Herriman. I poured through his work and could not gobble up enough of it. It was his work that led me to want to experiment with old-school dip pens and bottles of black ink, which inform my own cartooning today. Thank you, George Herriman, for paving the way for the rest of us who followed you… and showing what a little ink… a little paper… and endless imagination can create and instill for infinite generations.

 

John Rose, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith:

Ignatz Mouse, who sits on a shelf in my studio every day, and I say, “Bodacious birthday wishes, Mr. Herriman!”