Krazy Kat Art;
Comics in Ballet
STAR COMIC CREATION GOES
ON BROADWAY IN BALLET
STAGED BY CARPENTER
Let those who rail at the comic strips beware. No less an organ of the
intelligentsia than Vanity Fair has gone on record -- and solemnly, too --
that not only are the comics art, but that they are native American art
at its best.
The article was inspired by the recent production of the "Krazy Kat
Ballet" in New York. Gilbert Seldes, the write, in his analysis of the comic
strips, says that "Krazy Kat" is the greatest of them all.
"Between 1910 and 1916 nearly all the good comics were made into bad
burlesque shows," says Mr. Seldes. "In 1922 the greatest of them was
made into a ballet, scenario and music by John Alden Carpenter
choreography by Adolph Bohm; costumes and settings after designs
by George Herriman."
Critics gave "Krazy Kat" unstinted praise when this quaint little figure
appeared in the ballet, however, as he did in giving a psycho-analytic
interpretation, so to speak, of the motives behind Mr. Kat and his
friend, Ignatz Mouse, says Mr. Seldes.
"The plot, in general, is that Krazy Kat (androgynous, but, according to
his creator, willing to be either sex) is in love with Ignatz Mouse,
who is married and whose one object in life is to crown Krazy with a brick from
Colin Kelly's brickyard. The fatuous Kat, for reasons presently to be
explained, takes the brick to be a symbol of love and cannot therefore
appreciate the efforts of Offiser Pupp to entrammel the activities of Ignatz
Mouse. That is the framework of the action and it is important to know it,
so that no confusion may arise; the brick of Ignatz Mouse has nothing on
earth to do with the violence of other comic strips. Indeed it is often only
the beginning, not the end of an action. Frequently it does not arrive.
It is a symbol. I may say that it is the only symbol in modern art which
I fully understand.
"Mr. Carpenter has pointed out, in his brilliant little foreword to his
ballet, that Krazy Kat is a combination of Parsifal and Don Quixote; Igntaz is
Sancho Panza and Cesar Borgia; he loathes the sentimental excursions of
Krazy, he interrupts with his brick the romantic excesses of his
companion; he is hard and sees things as they are. But Mr. Herriman, who
is a great ironist, understands pity, and often at the end it is the
sentimentalist, the victim of acute
Bovaryisme, who triumphs, for Krazy dies
daily in full possession of his illusion.
"It is Ignatz, stupidly hurling his brick, unable to withstand the destiny
which orders that he shall not know Krazy's mind, who fosters the illusion
and keeps Krazy happy. Not always, for Herriman is no slave to his formula.
The brick, one has gathered from an ancient Sunday strip in the
Hearst papers, was, when the pyramids were building a love letter --
among those very Egyptians who held the Kat sacred. And sometimes the
letter fails to arrive.
"Last week one beheld Krazy smoking an elegant Havanna cigar and
sighing for Ignatz; a smoke screen hid him from view when Ignatz passed
and before the Mouse could turn back Krazy had given the cigar to Offiser
Pupp and departed, saying, "Looking at 'Offisa Pupp' smoke himself up like
a chimly is werra werra intrisking, but it is more wital that I find 'Ignatz.'"
Wherefore Ignatz considering the smoke screen a ruse, hurls his brick
and blacking Offiser Pupp's eyes, is promptly chased. Up to that point
you have the usual technique of the comic strip, as old as Shakespeare.
"But note the final picture of Krazy, beholding the chase, himself
disconsolate and alone, muttering, "Ah there him is -- playing tag with
'Offissa Pupp' -- just like the boom companions wot they is!" Or again the irony plays
about the silly pup who disguises himself to outwit Ignatz and directs himself
to outwit Ignatz and directs Ignatz, also disguised, directly to Krazy.
"Here the brick arrives, but again Mr. Herriman goes on to a cosmic
conclusion. For Krazy, laid out by the brick, sleeps and dreams of Ignatz
while the pup walks by saying, 'Slumber sweetly, proud creature, slumber
sweetly, for I have made this day safe for you.' It is impossible to re-tell
these pictures and it is not for their high humor that I repeat the words.
I am trying to give the impression of Herriman's incredible irony, of his
understanding of the tragedy, the
santa simplicitas, the innocent loveliness in
the heart of a creature more like Pan than any creation of our time."
