Aug. 14
George Herriman is legendary for his Krazy Kat series (whose
Sunday strips Fantagraphics finished collecting last year), but not
many people realize that even during Krazy’s 30-year-run, Herriman
branched out and produced several other comic-strip features, any one of
which would have landed him in the pantheon of all-time greats.
Stumble Inn,
which ran daily for over three years (from 1922 to 1926), featured
humans rather than animals and centered around the comedic occurrences
in a hotel populated by one Uriah Stumble and his dysfunctional group of
lodgers. (If you always wanted to see Herriman’s avant-la-lettre
version of Fawlty Towers, this is what you've been waiting for.) Less dreamy and surreal than Krazy Kat’s desert-bound romantic triangle, Stumble Inn
is a more robust, “classical” comic strip from the 1920s with
wisecracks and pratfalls galore, all of course delineated with
Herriman’s usual charm and elegance, and his slangy/poetic dialogue.
Reproduced
from the best newspaper tear sheets available (from the legendary Bill
Blackbeard San Francisco Academy of Comic Art), buttressed with
fascinating historical essays and even-more-rare art, Stumble Inn is yet another Herriman masterpiece, and a crucial addition to any classic comic-strip fan’s library.
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