The Word Made Flesh by Eva Talmadge

Author:Eva Talmadge [Talmadge, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-204253-8
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

Jeff T. Johnson

Brooklyn New York

IGNATZMOUSE

George Herriman’s comic strip Krazy Kat (serialized in U.S. newspapers from 1913 to 1944) hit me like a brick in the back of the head. I first became aware of it when a friend turned my attention to Jay Cantor’s novel of the same name. The book was a disappointment, but the comic strips were a revelation. They focus on a bizarre love triangle between a gender-ambiguous cat in love with a hetero-normative family-man mouse who is irked by Krazy’s advances, and a police dog (Officer Bull Pupp) who protects and serves Krazy. Ignatz Mouse is preoccupied with tossing bricks and bon mots (“GOOD HUNTING”) at Krazy, and Officer Pupp dutifully incarcerates Ignatz in a jailhouse made of bricks. Ignatz slides out a brick, recidivist device in hand, and the cycle repeats. Oh, and Krazy takes the brick-throwing as a sign of affection, so the birdies circling Krazy’s head chase hearts. This drama is rendered in a phonetic dialect of Herriman’s creation, so the affair gains complexity in the play of language. As Krazy puts it: “AH-H-L’IL AINJIL ‘IN MY HOUR OF MELLIN-KOLLY HE SOOTHES ME WITH A BRICK’—MISSIL OF LOVE, AND IFFECTION—”

Recently, a friend asked if I identify with Ignatz or Krazy. I think Krazy is closer to my head, though Ignatz is in my heart. Seeing Ignatz on my arm since Easter 2007—when another friend, tattoo artist Ross Kennedy, drilled the image onto my skin—is like having Krazy stamped on my brain. Ignatz could be suspended in the act of putting one on Krazy, but I also think of the brick as an idea moving ever toward my hand. The image is a tracing from the strip, which was then pressed onto my arm and traced with the tattoo gun. Ross reversed the word “ZIP” but did not reverse the image, so Ignatz appears to be left-handed, as am I. The plot thickens.

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