Before Krazy Kat there was The Dingbat Family. It was, in fact, the comic strip that gave birth to Krazy, who literally emerged from the margins of the strip to occupy his/her own series. Thanks to Fantagraphics, the Krazy Kat strips are readily available, but its progenitor is only very occasionally reprinted. That makes the appearance of this collection very welcome.
There is arguably no comic work as canonical as Krazy Kat. But unlike other revered classic newspaper strips, it was never terribly popular; indeed, a lot of the public disliked it. It’s also far harder to see Krazy Kat‘s impact on the medium. One could argue that it is the least influential canonical work in comics, and perhaps that is even true for all artforms.
A comprehensive overview of all the contributions to RAW would seem endless, and would probably make your brain melt, so instead Peter Campbell offers, in no particular order, the ten things that made RAW so groundbreaking and essential.
