Book Description: Fantagraphics'Books award-winningseries reprintingWinsor McKay's masterpiece has setthe standards for classic comics reprints. McKaywas an amazing draftsman, an incisive social commentator, and one of the most ingenious creative minds in any artform. This magnificent series is a glorious testament to his genius, and includes extensive biographical information on McKay as well as much rare art (including some of his more obscure strips).
Amazon.com: Winsor McCay's beautiful dreamscapes appeared in the New York Herald between 1905 and 1911, and the comic strip "Little Nemo" is considered by some to be the best, most brilliant comic strip ever published. Six-year-old Nemo (Latin for no one) falls asleep in his bed and is transported to the fantastical Slumberland--at the request of King Morpheus--where he encounters all kinds of strange creatures. At the end of each trip he wakes up, unsure of what was real and what was a dream. The exquisitely detailed, art-nouveau-style colored panels in this edition are reproduced from rare, vintage file-copy pages. Alongside George Herriman's bizarre Krazy Kat, McCay's work helped to create the grammar of comic art. This Little Nemo collection--an entertaining romp into Slumberland--also provides a lovely glimpse into the origins of an art form.
Great comic, great draftsmanship, great art... What's to say? The greatest cartoon ever is out of print and can't be seen by anyone. Thankfully his animated work is available on DVD through Amazon and it's a humbling experience. Those were the first animated cartoons and in some respects they've seldom been equalled. His first one--THE first one--is a shocker, like some amateur building the Taj Mahal on the first try. In terms of raw, fantastic, dizzying, imagination coupled with stunning craftsmanship McCay may have no equal.
If this material is not made available pressure should be exerted somewhere, maybe with the Smithsonian, to release new editions. The lack of availability is almost criminal: like finding out that Don Quixote's gone out of print or something. Really, I'm not being hyperbolic. For all the interest there is in comic art these days, all the Manga, Fantastic Fours and graphic novels, this has to be accepted as the medium's Shakespeare.
The first volume of Winsor McCay's classic comic strip Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" is a rare combination of artistry and imagination that deserves to be considered the first classic comic strip. "The Yellow Kid" came first, but it never demonstrated the superb craftsmanship of McCay's work, which is done in a distinctive "art nouveau" style that presages the coming of surrealism. Within the frames of his story McCay was able to create illusions of vast size and space, showing a word that was remarkably futuristic. Each of Little Nemo's weekly adventures told of a dream of the tousle-haired boy (of about six?) and concluded with him falling out of bed or waking up. McCay's son Robert served as the model for Nemo. Before working on the Slumberland strips McCay had experimented with other comics including "Little Sammy Sneeze," "Hungry Henriette," "Poor Jake," "Tales of Jungle Imps," and "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" (the last one under the pseudonym Silas), but none of them even hinted at the splendor of "Little Nemo." In 1909 McCay would go on to create "Gertie the Dinosaur," the first commercially successful animated cartoon, which is probably how most people know of McCay's work. But that can only be because they have yet to be exposed to this comic strip.
The "Little Nemo in Slumberland" comics in this book originally appeared in the "New York Herald" Sunday color supplement from October 15, 1905 to March 31, 1907 and are faithfully reproduced in their original colors from rare, vintage file-copy pages in the hands of a few choice collectors. There is even a special strip that appeared in the European edition of the "Herald" that was never printed in the U.S. The strip continued until 1911 and those strips are published in the other volumes in this series. In these early adventures Little Nemo first enters Slumberland and learns to cope with his unpredictable flying bed, pursues the beautiful Princess of Slumber, searches for the castle of King Morpheus, and endures the ministrations of Dr. Pill. Nemo also meets up with the devilish Flip, a green-faced clown in a plug hat and ermine collared jacket, who starts off always trying to summon the Dawn and wake Nemo from his dreams but then becomes our little heroes boon companion in his Slumberland adventures which involved an impressive array of strange giants, beautiful mermaids, humongous elephants, mysterious space creatures, exotic parades, fantastic dirigible rides, a jolly green dragon, and anything else McCay could imagine.
By both artistic and historical standards "Little Nemo in Slumberland" is the first truly great comic strip. When you look at the great strips that followed, such as George Herriman's "Krazy Kat," George McManus' "Bringing Up Father," Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff," and Frank King's "Gasoline Alley," they are all decidedly different from what McCay was doing, although the use of "art nouveau" interiors and zany byplay by McManus is clearly an homage to "Little Nemo" as far as I am concerned. There is a sense in which those who see nothing similar appearing on the funny pages until Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" have a point, although I would acknowledge Snoopy's imaginative life in "Peanuts" as well.
This volume includes "Perchance to Dream," an essay by Richard Marschall, who I think was the single biggest contributor of the strips reprinted in this volume. The essay provides a concise summary of McCay's life and career, with examples of some of his earlier work, "Little Nemo" postcards, and an incredibly detailed editorial cartoon. But the most important thing is that Marschall's efforts have preserved the premier American comic strip for the enjoyment of posterity. There has never been a more magical comic strip. Never.
Before Calvin, there was Nemo ... Long before a little boy and his tiger explored the imagination with wry social commentary and surrealism, Winsor McCay did the same with this amazing series of full page newspaper comics. This is a veritable treasure trove of comics history.
Admittedly, the jokes are not the same as Calvin and Hobbes so do not expect the same feelings. I find that Nemo evokes more feelings of wonder and delight while C and H brings about the hearty "guffaw". Also, the ending of every episode is exactly the same in that Nemo awakes to find the night's adventures were all within his head.
On the other hand, this book gives wonderful background of McCay and his world as well as beautiful reprints of the original prints.
I would heartily recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy, childhood, comics, or the dreams of past days.
Winsor McCay was more important then Walt Disney !! Winsor McCay has been forgotten by the mainstream Nostalgia R' US spoon-fed media circus that we are all tapped into. Winsor McCay was a pioneering creative genius. He may not have been the very first motion picture animator but created some of the first animated shorts which featured CHARACTERS. His first was Gertie the Dinosaur. McCay would actually tour with his short and interact with the dinosaur on the screen, making it roll over and other tricks. McCay's Little Nemo is a feast
for the eyes. His eye for detail gives us a window to the early days of the 20th Century. The characters are completly fantastic. He was decades ahead of his time.
The Fantastic Dreamworld of Little Nemo Although originally published as a weekly comic strip at the turn of the century, time has hardly diminished the charm or imaginative experiences of Little Nemo. As an unscripted character in his episodic dreams, a little boy named Nemo endeavors to keep up with the developments in "Slumberland" as they rapidly unfold. Recurrent characters show up to join in on the adventures, usually already in progress, and to clue Nemo in on where he is expected to go. As in dreams, the logic is usually skewed, and the storylines quickly gain momentum till they peak in a cataclysmic event that ultimately awakens Little Nemo. The wonderfully illogical development of the dreams are still as fresh today as they were a century ago. The only reminder of the era they came from is the quaint clothing and manner of the characters. The innovative story developments, though, are still uniquely fresh, having come from the visionary mind of Winsor McCay, who is credited with being the father of modern animation.
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