Michael Tisserand

I picked up this biography on a whim and it has become an all time favorite.

Michael Tisserand uses his subject to weave together incredibly interesting and complex histories about newspapers, boxing, cartooning, a young film industry, and race in the early 20th century. It's an ambitious project, but Tisserand is fully up to the job and has written a book that hits the mark and is fun to read.

And that doesn't begin to mention how interesting George Herriman and Krazy Kat are, in and of themselves.

Tisserand treats his subject with care and does a great job describing Herriman's foundational art and work.… (meer)

When I was a kid (we're talking 1960's here), I remember being introduced to "Krazy Kat" as a series of TV cartoons and thinking that there was something interesting going on here, but I really don't get it. Those thoughts basically lay fallow until this biography came out a few years ago, when it immediately went on the TBR list. My thoughts on having finished this work? As for the book itself, Tisserand is almost too careful of a writer at the start, as he lays out the family history that George Herriman was so careful to keep obscure, as having roots in the Free Black community of New Orleans would certainly have aborted the young man's aspirations to being a commercial artist. Once you get into the meat of the book, dealing with Herriman's career as a cartoonist, Tisserand treats those cartoons as a "text" to try and draw out truths about Herriman, and there's a strong argument to be made that said cartoons were a way for Herriman to vent what he was really feeling.

Apart from dealing with Herriman as an artist, Tisserand also explores the ins and outs of his subject's life, with the most interesting being how Herriman struck up a relationship with the Navajo community; outside of the company of his immediate family and peers, they seem to be the people Herriman felt most at home with.… (meer)