Maurice Sendak's homage

Children's author Maurice Sendak pens the forward to John Canemaker's biography on Winsor McCay. In it he says:

"My book In the Night Kitchen is, in part, an homage to Winsor McCay."

I always thought this was figurative -- as in, "the spirit of McCay." But after taking a closer look, there are also super strong Visual parallels between "In the Night Kitchen" and "Little Nemo in Slumberland."

The most obvious similarity is Kitchen's opening image. Sendak starts his book the same way McCay ends every Nemo comic:



Nemo does lots of falling:



Spends some time nekid:




This one is probably a stretch:



And look what I found hiding in the Night Kitchen! Clever, clever me with peekings and seekings!

It's disguised well -- it actually says "Chicken Little, Nemo Mass..." Nicely hidden!