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Family Upstairs Dec 14, 1911 strip by George Herriman

Artist: George Herriman (All)

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Family Upstairs Dec 14, 1911 strip by George Herriman Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Family Upstairs Dec 14, 1911 strip by George Herriman
Artist:	George Herriman (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Comic Strip
For Sale Status:	$13,500
Views:	204
Likes on CAF:	1 2
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	12/3/2024
Comic Art Archive:

Description

1911...that is 113 years old!

Here is my regular description of the pieces.

Before there was Krazy Kat, Herriman had a number of comic strip successes. Among them was the Dingbat Family which ran from June 1910 to January 1916. The title changed to "The Family Upstairs" for over a year and then changed back. For 2 weeks the title changed to "Krazy Kat and I. Mouse" in July of 1912 and then back again. The Dingbat's cat was called Kat and the first brick throw hitting the cat was 7/26/10. The Kat and Mouse strip continued in the lower tier of the strip for most of the rest of the run. This example is from Dec of 1911. First published on Dec 14, 1911 in the New York Evening Journal but also found published on Dec 16, 1911 in other publications. This was not uncommon to have different publication dates in these early days of comic strip printing.

This is a really fun example!

The patriarch of the family was E. Pluribus Dingbat and looks a lot like my namesake from Mutt and Jeff. In the first panel we see the artist T. Aloysius Dorgan referenced. TAD was a well known pioneering editorial and comic strip artist in the day. Him and George were friends and so a little inside joke. The idea of imagery turning into reality is a theme Herriman liked to play with. It is a great top tier.

The bottom tier is what is most important about this strip. It is the birth place of Krazy Kat with both Krazy and Ignatz featured but his one also has an early appearance of Officer Pup. Nice brick throwing gag. What is most interesting about this example are the words in the bottom of the tier. I had no idea what to make of this but I had help from some experts and friends on this. Herriman would often number his panels and sometimes use words instead to number. On occasions the words would be easy to decipher and others were more difficult. This one is still a puzzle to me. What I have learned from friends is the following.

Ungska : young lady in swedish

Taykanee : mother in Aymara

Asung : dog in javanese

WEESK (scottish national dictionary) , v., n. [wisk]I. v. To make a thin shrill squeaking noise, as a mouse, to creak, of new boots, rusty hinges, etc. (Ork. 1929 Marw., Ork. 1973).II. n. A squeal, squeak.Ork. 1970 Private MS.:
Hid wisna useless weesks that came fae hid [an organ] ither.[Orig. chiefly imit. Cf. Eesk, v., 3. and Norw. dial. kviska, Dan. hviske, to whisper, Norw. dial. kviskja, to rustle.]

The mystery stands for Kayayrlee. (thanks Eric of Finland/France)

Herriman loved to play with words and sounds.

The piece shows some wear and there is a tear in the bottom tier that crosses some ink work.

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About the Owner

	Jeff Singh ( 7 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	November 2004
Last Login:	September 2025
Website:	http://www.art4comics.com
Country:	CANADA
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