Krazy Kat

Krazy Kat was a cartoon strip, appearing in both weekday and sunday US newspapers, created by George Herriman. It grew from an earlier comic strip Herriman wrote, The Dingbat Family. Herriman would complete the cartoons about the Dingbats, and finding himself with time left over from his 8-hour day, filled the bottom of the cartoon with the slapstick actions of a cat and a mouse. This space-filler grew into something much larger than the original cartoon, and became a Sunday-only cartoon on April 23, 1916, and before long also a daily strip. Herriman continued to draw this cartoon up to his death in 1944.

Krazy Kat focussed on the relational triangle of its title character, Krazy Kat a cat of indeterminate gender, Krazy's antagonist and love interest Ignatz Mouse, and Krazy's lover and authority figure, Offica Pupp. Most of the strips revolved around the formula of Ignatz throwing a brick at Krazy Kat, which while endearing Krazy to Ignatz, would inevitably result with Offica Pupp putting Ignatz behind bars -- yet not all. Portrayed against a dreamlike portrayal of northern Arizona landscape, the world of Krazy Kat is something that was never seen before its creation -- and rarely since.

Bill Watterson has mentioned Krazy Kat as one of his inspirations for his own cartoon series, Calvin and Hobbes.