Every so often, one institution or another will make a list of the most influential comics of all time. While these lists are by no means common, it’s an even rarer occasion when George Herriman’s Krazy Kat is left off the list. In 1999, the Comics Journal recognized this when it listed Krazy Kat as the 1 best American comic of the 20^th century. If you’re looking for somewhere to spend the money you’re saving after switching your wireless internet service, Fantagraphics’ collections of the classic strips (starting with 2002′s Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1926: “There is a Heppy Land Furfur A-waay”) are a great way to experience what everyone’s been talking about.The strip is centered around three anthropomorphic animals. There’s the titular Krazy Kat, an ambiguously-gendered feline who speaks in a dialect similar to that of Herriman’s native New Orleans (known as Yat). Herriman refused to specify a gender for Krazy, instead referring to him as “something like a sprite, an elf. They have no sex. So that Kat can’t be a he or a she.” Krazy Kat is a naively innocent counterpart to the mischievous Ignatz Mouse, who finds his greatest pleasure in throwing bricks at Krazy’s head. Nevertheless, Krazy is hopelessly in love with Ignatz. Offissa Pup, representing the “Limb of Law and Arm of Order,” often thwarts Ignatz’s plots against Krazy, ironically leaving the Kat wondering where his “l’il ainjil” has gone. The strip ran daily in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Evening Journal from 1913 to 1944. However, the characters appeared even before that as minor characters in Herriman’s first strip, The Family Upstairs. (Read the rest of this story.)