Babu & Abu

The talented Mall made herself a great birthday present!

Petit Lucien

Hmmm... Could it be that Little Nemo was inspired by an obscure comic episode published 20 years earlier in France? Interesting comparisons at Topfferiana (or click here for mangled English via babelfish)

Kid Lit

So yesterday I was looking through Brian Lies' brand new children's book "Bats at the Library" and - surprise, surprise - saw this great Little Nemo/Rarebit reference:



Winsor McCay is an illustrator's illustrator. And I suspect children's book creators in particular love him. "Bats at the Library" is just the latest to pay homage to the man. William Joyce acknowledges Little Nemo in the dedication area of "Santa Calls," a book which includes this image of a galloping bed:



And of course I've already talked about Maurice Sendak in an earlier post... you can find all sorts of references to Nemo in "In the Night Kitchen":



So here are three kid lit examples... Who else am I missing? Does anyone know of any more Little Nemo tributes hiding in the pages of children's books? I'm sure they're out there...

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...

King Nemo

Marcus Thiele has a cool pitch for a comic book called "King Nemo."
Here's his synopsis:

This story imagines the later lives of characters first introduced in Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo" comic strip, which became public domain in 2005. As such, it is intended as a respectful homage to that great creator and his lasting impact on the history of comics, animation and the literature of dreams.

Love it! Check out three sample pages Here...

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!

At The Mountains Of Slumberland

Question -- What do you get when you cross H.P. Lovecraft,
Winsor McCay, and a bunch of mimes?
Answer -- One of the oddest thing you'll ever lay eyes on:
"Necropolis 3: At The Mountains Of Slumberland"
If you dare, check it out here...