Writing for Esquire in September 1935, the American critic Gilbert Seldes declared, ‘I can only say that those who have once fallen under his spell can never forget him, and form a sort of secret society, bound together by their love of a gentle little monster, the first character in our popular mythology.’ The spellbinder in question was the cartoonist George Herriman (born in 1880); the ‘gentle little monster’ was the lead character in Herriman’s most famous creation, Krazy Kat; and the ‘secret society’ of ardent admirers, though its numbers today are smaller than they were, persists into our own century.

Literary Review

Feb 2017

Categories

Kevin Jackson

Brod’s Bequest

Something to Sink Your Teeth Into

The Critic’s Critic

The Jeddah Gang

Plenty of Sex & Nowhere to Sit

In the Court of the Seelie King

Aria Rage

Rise to the Occasion

Escape Artist

Shades of Sin

Enfant Terrible

Civilising Influence

Use Your Illusions

Sadland

Arise, Sir Realist

Urra=hubbulu

In Praise of Asymmetry

Bewitched

The Third Man

And All That Jazz

Spellbound

When Blue Met Yellow

Not Just a Pretty Face

Grizzled Man