We are sorry to announce that several experts have confirmed that what we thought was a sketchbook of early versions of several years' worth of Krazy Kat strips created by George Herriman — and had planned to publish as such — is almost certainly the work of a very intense (perhaps contemporary with Herriman?) fan who diligently, even maniacally, copied each new strip into his sketchbook over a period of three years.
The telltale signs of this became apparent only when we had a chance to take a closer look at high-resolution scans made as part of the pre-press process, signs which made evident some flaws and quirks in the drawings that rendered its authenticity highly dubious.
I want to emphasize that the owner of the sketchbook was quite convinced as to the authenticity of this object, and the late thumbs-down from the experts came as a rude shock to him as well. No deceit was intended on anyone's part: Our delight at what we thought we'd found overruled the skepticism we should've wielded at an earlier date.
We will be sending refunds to the handful of Herriman fans who'd pre-ordered and prepaid this book, and we apologize to anyone who got their hopes up. At least we figured it out before actually going to press on the thing.
On the other side of the Herriman coin… (see next blog entry below)