Handmade screen print on cotton paper.

Signed and numbered out of 200 in pencil by the printer, John Patrick Reynolds.

Standard size: 26cm x 19cm
Medium size: 48cm x 38cm
Large size: 76cm x 56cm

Krazy Kat encounters a worm. I love it. Simple and surreal. The original was black and white. I’ve added colour to the sky. Krazy Kat is an invention of American cartoonist George Herriman – many subsequent cartoonists have listed him as an influence. This strip was drawn about 100 years ago – it’s a century old!

The two characters are the rather stupid Krazy Kat and his much brighter mouse friend Ignatz, who secretly despises him although Krazy never realises this even though he’s always having bricks lobbed at his head.

The strip ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal owned by William Randolph Hearst who was a great fan of the artist – he is reputed to have given Herriman carte blanche to draw whatever he liked. And, as a result of being bullet-proof, he could explore the wackier routes his imagination led him along without worrying that the strip was popular with the public, or even comprehensible.

I struggled understanding the storylines sometimes until I realised this fact – that they were always obscure. And now I’m free to enjoy the draughtsmanship and imagination of a comic strip genius.

These are all original screenprints. An original print is a work of art printed by hand, from a plate, block, stone, or stencil (which is the case here - screenprints are made using screen stencils) that has been created by the artist for the purpose of producing the image.

Romance from the early 1960s: Cheer up, June