Biography

Ashes scattered by airplane over Monument Valley, Arizona.

Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who published his comic strip, was a great fan of "Krazy Kat," and continued to print the strip even after popularity in it waned with readers. Unlike comic strips of the time, "Krazy Kat" was not continued with another artist or writer after Herriman's death. The final strip published was an un-inked penciling of a Sunday page found on his drawing board at the time of his death.

Herriman was infatuated with American Indian artwork and spirituality. Influences can be seen in his artwork and the dialogue of the characters.

Prior to creating the comic strip "Krazy Kat," he worked for a sideshow in Coney Island as a sign painter and sideshow barker. Later he would work as a sports cartoonist for a New York newspaper.

He was a black man passing himself as white for his entire life. Years after his death, a marriage certificate of his parents was found, listing their races as "mulatto".