KICK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (24)
By:
March 24, 2022
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of a favorite sidekick — whether real-life or fictional.
IGNATZ MOUSE
George Herriman’s Krazy Kat (1913–1944) famously scribbles out the lines between categories. The characters shift genders frequently, the narrator is also the audience, and words become song become poetry become nonsense in every frame. Herriman himself lived in shifting identities of race, class, and sexuality. And of course his beloved duo, Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse, orbit each other as hero and sidekick, as subject and object of desire, as friend and foe, victim and rescuer, love and hatred.
Sometimes our purest love is unrequited, unconsummated, unsatisfying. Each day in our own lives, we stare sidelong at each other, wondering what comes next. We don’t know what section of the comics store we’re living in — is this a romance? A mystery? A horror story? A sidekick is a perfect foil, a blank slate counterpart. You don’t have to define the relationship to keep them close.
They’re just there, flying bricks and all.
KICK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Annie Nocenti on RATSO | Barbara Bogaev on TRIXIE | Sara Ryan on SWIFT WIND | Carlo Rotella on BELT BEARERS | Adam McGovern on JACKIE McGEE | Josh Glenn on RAWHIDE | Gabriela Pedranti on KUILL | Douglas Wolk on VOLSTAGG | Serdar Paktin on CATO | Deirdre Day on TRAMPAS | Dean Haspiel on TIN MAN | Flourish Klink on THE APOSTLE PETER | Miranda Mellis on FAMILIAR | Peggy Nelson on COSMO | Beth Lisick on MARTHA BROOKS | Bishakh Som on CAPTAIN HADDOCK | Stephanie Burt on SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE | Greg Rowland on SPOCK | Adam Netburn on SENKETSU | Mimi Lipson on ROBIN QUIVERS | Jonathan Pinchera on GUTS | Tom Nealon on TWIKI | Mandy Keifetz on DR. EINSTEIN | Judith Zissman on IGNATZ MOUSE | Anthony Miller on DOCTOR GONZO.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!