The Comic Strip Library

Over at the fantastic Comic Strip Library, all the Little Nemo episodes have been uploaded. Now they're working their way through Winsor McCay's "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend." What a great resource!

political

Golden Age Comic Book Stories has posted a great sampling of Winsor McCay's editorial cartoons...

Volume 2 Times 2

A heads up on two new collections of Little Nemo comics coming out this month - both of them sequels to fabulous first volumes...

"Many More Splendid Sundays" is a best-of collection, reprinting another 115 digitally-restored Sunday pages at their original size: 16 x 21 inches... huge! Volume One, "So Many Splendid Sundays" truly is astounding (you can see my previous report). It's no wonder Volume One's first printing sold out in just 90 days. I can't wait to come across this sequel... Visit Sunday Press for more details.


The other book being released is "Little Nemo in the Land of Wonderful Dreams." It's the second half to the complete collection of Little Nemo comics. Checker Publishing's Volume One is my favorite of the full Nemo collection's I've seen. Visit Checker's site for more details too...

A Bed Likes to Get Out Once in a While

Here is what is probably the most famous of all of Winsor McCay's cartoons, published exactly 100 years ago today...

(Thanks goes out to the Comic Strip Library!)

Slumberland Titles!

It has always astounded me how someone with drafting skill like this:


...could fill dialog balloons like this:


Wha...? Clearly Winsor McCay was a master draftsman. And certainly the wonder of his comics is in the art, not the writing. But even though the the content of the dialog is inconsequential, still it seems he would have taken care with its visual presentation, yes? Perhaps the blight of his word balloons serves a purpose -- making the art all the more astounding by contrast?? Naw, there's no defense. They stink.

Anyway, it's not that he couldn't do lettering well. After all, he had a career as a poster designer for a while. And his title panels show exquisite lettering. So... to celebrate the fact that McCay COULD do excellent lettering when he put his mind to it, I've put together a collection - just a mere handful - of his gorgeous and varied title panels... Enjoy!

Superman meets McCay

In 1998 Stuart Immonen created a series of Superman comics retelling origin stories the villains. The premise was that Lex Luthor was reading bedtime stories to his daughter, and Immonen illustrated them in the style of Winsor McCay's Slumberland comics!

You can see a whole slew of them here!

Comic Strip Library

Here is an AMAZING resource! Over at The Comic Strip Library, Zachary Chavez has been creating a digital library of comic strips now in the public domain. Right now it looks like he's got just about every episode of George Harriman's Krazy Kat, and he is currently working his way through getting all of McCay's Little Nemo uploaded. Here's the episode of Little Nemo in Slumberland, published exactly 100 years ago tomorrow...

For Inspiration

See Dreams and Obsessions on Shelf and Screen, in which Huib van Opstal gives an analysis of the groundbreaking innovations made over a century ago in Winsor McCay's series ‘Dream of the Rarebit Fiend’. It's a commentary on the fantastic collection put out by Ulrich Merkl. (Spring Lake Library does have two copies now by the way. It's a Great book. It's massive... solid... it's like holding a brick)

McCay Day 2008! (Part Two)

Today's afternoon session focused on Winsor McCay's cartooning legacy. It was another full house, with folks standing in the back. Local illustrator Kevin Collier spent the session's first half introducing the audience to Little Nemo, Sammy Sneeze, and the Rarebit crew. He talked about Winsor's early drawings, made while he was a kid here in Spring Lake.


Kevin spent the second half leading everyone in a cartooning workshop, sharing hints, tips, and tricks of the trade...


Surprise, surprise... there was another giant cookie to give away!


There was also a special awards ceremony for the talented kids from Spring Lake Intermediate School. All the McCay inspired artwork that has been on display at the library was judged, and prizes were awarded for what were deemed the top three pieces of art.


They received cool Little Nemo themed art supplies from Eeboo. Kyle shows us his great cartoon and his loot!


Thanks to SLDL and to Kevin Collier for the great afternoon!