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George Herriman was born in a light-skinned Creole of Color family in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his adolescence Herriman's father moved the family to Los Angeles, California, among many educated New Orleans Creoles of Color to do so at the time in order to avoid the increasing restrictions of Jim Crow laws in Louisiana. (In later life many of Herriman's newspaper colleagues were under the impression that Herriman's ancestry was Greek, and Herriman did nothing to disuade them of this notion.)

At the age of 17 Herriman began working as an illustrator and engraver for the Los Angeles Herald newspaper. Over the next few years he did many newspaper spot illustrations and cartoons, and produced several early comic strips, at times producing several daily strips at the same time. Herriman's early strips including Major Ozone, Musical Mose, Acrobatic Archie, Professer Otto and his Auto, Two Jolly Jackies and several others, most of which were only slightly above the average quality of newspaper strips of the time.

Perhaps the first indication of Herriman's unusual creativity and the bizarre poetical sense of humor which would make him famous surfaced in 1909 with his strip Goosebury Sprig, the Duck Duke. The following year Herriman began a domestic comedy strip called The Dingbat Family. After a while Herriman started drawing The Dingbat Family strip as two strips in one; the main action happening with the human family taking up most of each panel, and an unrelated storyline involving a cat and mouse underneath the family's floorboards taking place in the bottom segment of each panel. This strip was then renamed The Family Upstairs. The cat and mouse strip was then spun off into another strip in 19131913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. click on link for calendar) Events January-March January 30 House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill February 1 New York City's Grand Central Station opens as the world's largest train station. February 3 Th, originally Krazy Kat and Ignatz, and then Krazy Kat.

Herriman also continued drawing the domestic comedy strip, again named The Dingbat Family, until 19161916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. Impressionist Monet paints Water Lilies'. January 8 Allied forces withdraw from. From 19161916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. Impressionist Monet paints Water Lilies'. January 8 Allied forces withdraw from through 1919Events January January 1 Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company January 5 Spartacist uprising Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution with Spartacist League in the forefront January 9 Spartacus Herriman also drew the daily strip Baron Bean. Herriman would continue to draw other strips in addition to Krazy Kat through 19321932 is the leap year starting on Friday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 3 British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel January 8 In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees Jan.

Krazy Kat, however, was the strip which became Herriman's most famous. It was never the most popular strip of its day; many readers complained it made no sense. However it had an enthusiastic following, including many prominent artists and intellectuals of the era, as well as Herriman's publisher William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst ( April 29, 1863 August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper magnate, born in San Francisco, California. Hearst's father was a multi-millionaire miner and U. Senator from California named George Hearst. His mother was Phoebe Hearst, himself.

On June 25June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. Events 1788 Virginia ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 10th state of the United States. 1876 Battle of the Little B, 1944, two months after Herriman's death, the last of his Krazy Kat strips was printed. At the time Hearst usually brought in new cartoonists when the artists of a popular strip died or quit, but an exception was made for Herriman, as no one else could take his place.

Herriman was the illustrator for the first printed edition of Don MarquisDon Marquis ( July 29, 1878 December 29, 1937) was a writer, poet, and journalist; best known for creating the characters "Archy" and "Mehitabel". Archy was a cockroach who left poems on Marquis's typewriter by jumping on the keys, and Mehitabel was both' archy and mehitabelarchy and mehitabel is the title of a series of newspaper columns written by Don Marquis beginning in 1916. Written as fictional social commentary and intended as a space-filler to allow Marquis to meet the challenge of writing a daily newspaper column si stories.