The Fantagraphics Books series of Krazy Kat Sunday reprints is appropriately capped with a stunning find, Krazy & Ignatz: The Sketchbook Strips, 1910-1913 (160 12x18-inch pages in “color” — mostly b/w pencil sketches, I suspect — hardcover, $75), reprinting Herriman’s preliminary drawings for the “basement” kat and mouse strip with which he infested The Family Upstairs strip, wherein a tiny Ignatz first beaned a miniature Krazy with a microscopic brick. Herriman’s practice in producing the strip was to draw a complete and detailed version of each strip in a sketchbook before re-drawing it for publication in The Family Upstairs; this tome is that sketchbook, an amazing cartooning artifact. I haven’t seen this book yet, but the Fanta catalogue tells us that it includes an essay on Herriman and, for comparative purposes, a generous sampling of the strips as published. Fantagraphics plans to publish a complete collection of The Family Upstairs eventually.
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