George and Mabel Herriman, Wedding Portrait, 1902

This formal studio portrait captures George Herriman—later the creator of *Krazy Kat*—and his bride Mabel Bridge on their wedding day. Herriman, then twenty-two, had already begun his newspaper cartooning career, working the grind of dailies that were simultaneously inventing the comic strip's visual language: recurring characters, sequential panels, the speech balloon as dramatic architecture. *Krazy Kat* (1913–1944) would become the form's first critical touchstone, its surreal Coconino County landscapes admired by Gilbert Seldes and e.e. cummings alike. This quiet domestic image captures a moment in the early life of one of comics' most innovative artists.