Afterword to Krazy: George Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoon and its appeal to E. E. Cummings.

Abstract

George Herriman's "Krazy Kat," a linguistically innovative and trenchant comic strip that appeared in newspapers from 1916-1944, attracted the attention of our major American poet, e. e. cummings, who wrote a foreword to a collection of the strips and admired it for its transcendent celebration of love over egoism in a triadic relationship, its scorn of politics, and its brick-throwing irreverence. Similarities between Cummings's and Herriman's work include language play, humorous voices, examinations of dimensions of empathy and theory of mind, musicality, and humanistic religiosity.