Muskegon Chronicle article

The Muskegon Chronicle picked up on the news about the attempt to honor McCay here in Spring Lake. They even tapped McCay biographer John Canemaker. Here are some excerpts from a nice long article:

"This is not like having some aviator from Spring Lake. This is like having someone who invented manned flight," [Aaron] Zenz said. "Winsor McCay isn't just some animator. He's the guy who invented animation as we know it."

"What struck me is there was nothing in this town to commemorate him," [Kevin] Collier recalled. "It was pretty clear to me there was nothing. The district library had one book on him. For the most part, Spring Lake had no idea the guy existed."

"One of the things that really surprised us about him is he is so preeminent in his field that you can go to practically any illustrator any place in the world, and ask 'Who is Winsor McCay?' and he will be able to tell you," [Chris Davis] said. "But you walk down the street in Spring Lake and nobody will be able to tell you."

"We can truly say he was the first artist who started a type of animation that Disney would do later -- personality animation where they want you to believe the characters they have created are real. Disney did not try that until 20 years after Winsor McCay." [John] Canemaker said

"I'm glad people are trying to push this forward [a Spring Lake tribute to McCay]," said Canemaker.

Read the whole article here: Spring Lake man influenced Disney, Walter Lantz