Will Eisner

George Joseph Herriman was an American cartoonist, best known for his classic comic strip Krazy Kat. George Herriman was born in a light-skinned, Creole African-American family in New Orleans, Louisiana. Both of his parents were listed as "mulatto" in the 1880 census. In his adolescence,... Herriman's father moved the family to Los Angeles, California, as did many educated New Orleans Creoles of color 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 disabuse them of this notion. According to close friends of Herriman, he wore a hat at all times in order to hide his "kinky" hair. He was listed on his death certificate as "Caucasian". At the age of 17, Herriman began working as an illustrator and engraver for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and over the next few years did many newspaper spot illustrations, observational and political cartoons, and produced several early comic strips, at times producing several daily strips at the same time.
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