Monday, January 11, 2021

Great Classics Of Literature Out Th' Ass Dept. - Little Nemo


Winsor McCay, genius. Today's Bumper Bag O'Books™ is a loo-ong run [1905-14 complete - Ed.] of his weekly comic pages for the New York Herald and New York World. I can't possibly do him justice here without copy-pasting from Wikipedia and pretending it's my own wise work, so click over there to enter the rabbit hole of McCay's imagination. He's never been matched as a graphic artist, and is quite the equal of (well, better than) much-lauded "fine" artists such as Hokusai, who never had to work in a narrative form or to a weekly deadline, over decades. His work is cinematic, mind-bending, and astonishingly beautiful.

A different world, when a newspaper publisher could be a patron of the arts with no agenda other than to make your day a better one (he was going to make money anyway).

Note: the PDFs are much sharper quality than the above scan.

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24 comments:

  1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIJanuary 11, 2021 at 8:31 AM



    Sweet dreams!


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  2. Jack Kerouac's CatJanuary 11, 2021 at 7:44 PM

    Genius indeed.

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  3. BambiJanuary 11, 2021 at 7:51 PM

    Farq, I've had a quick look at this (the first pdf), it look magnificent, I'm not familiar at all. I will need to spend some time with it later in the week, but I'm sure you've introduced to me something I will really enjoy. Thank you for these golden insights. oh and also the smut, freeloadable music and merriment. All the best for 2021.

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  4. pmacJanuary 11, 2021 at 8:00 PM

    New to me. Under quarantine since I had a had a high incident exposure to someone who was positive, so this will help me while away the hours. Yea 2021!

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    Replies
    1. UncleBJanuary 14, 2021 at 7:54 AM

      . . . high incident . . .

      And when we all just KNOW that your Mama Toldja Not To Come...?!

      Seriously, best of luck with that, mister mac.

      Delete
  5. FieldhippieJanuary 11, 2021 at 10:31 PM

    What'd I miss?

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  6. PsychfanJanuary 11, 2021 at 11:06 PM

    I've never had the chance to see more than samples, so this is much appreciated.

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  7. FieldhippieJanuary 12, 2021 at 3:51 AM

    Is it just me or am I stupid?

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  8. HermannJanuary 12, 2021 at 4:05 AM

    Thanks.
    Fieldhippy missed the hidden link ... !

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  9. FRANCKJanuary 12, 2021 at 4:53 AM

    A big thank you Farquhar for making me doubt my sentences. And yet I was deeply immersed in comics from 1956 to 1984, where the arrival of CDs and the purchase of hundreds of records led me to make economic choices. I'll explain myself with a bit of history. My grandmother, from the age of three, taught me to read with TINTIN
    Coke in Stock (RED SEA SHARKS) quickly mickey's diary made me progress in reading with Mickey Donald and family, but also comics from famous films like Snow white, Sleeping beauty Pinocchio but also subsequently Flash Gordon or Mandrake. Then Spirou's diary (Lucky Luke or les smurfs) fed me for ten years in parallel with 1962 with the arrival of PILOTE (Asterix, Valerian and plenty of authors). In the same period, from the age of 7 I started devouring science fiction novels very quickly at the rate of one every two days.
    Arrived at the dawn of the 70s, several dissenting cartoonists created more adult, sexier newspapers after the example of Crumb and the freaks Brothers, And also newspapers of the history of American comics with reissues of the great old ones (Superman , Batman, but also Phantom ") It was around this time that I had a glimpse of LITTLE NEMO. I found it too" Black and white, too old, too newspapers. And then those sweet dreams with a bed who has big paws, we were far from Corben, from Druillet.
    So when I see the page you set as an example, I think I was a jerk on that one.

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    Replies
    1. BambiJanuary 12, 2021 at 4:14 PM

      I'm a little younger than you Franck, but was also into the adult stuff. I thought Druillet was 'the best', have the Lone Sloane, Delirius book somewhere. I'd spend hours re-reading and trying to copy frames from it, great days of my youth.

      Delete
  10. FRANCKJanuary 12, 2021 at 5:17 AM

    crumb, freak brothers but especially Mad (you see i'm still a jerk, isn 't Alfred E. Neuman?)

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  11. Clarence PuneJanuary 12, 2021 at 6:01 AM

    I'd never read his history before, and didn't know (blush) that he was Canadian.
    Many thanks for posting,

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  12. jonderJanuary 12, 2021 at 8:59 AM

    One of the all time greats, along with George Herriman and Walt Kelly. Thank you!

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  13. SitarswamiJanuary 12, 2021 at 11:17 PM

    Thanks for this. I recently read "Beyond Mars" written mostly by Jack Williamson and illustrated by Lee Elias. It ran in only one newspaper, the NY Sunday News, from Feb 1952 - March 1955 and its genesis was the paper's attempt to compete with television.

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  14. oqueefJanuary 14, 2021 at 1:59 AM

    Sweet! Thanks, Farq!

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  15. HermannJanuary 14, 2021 at 4:48 PM

    https://comicsforall269084760.wordpress.com/
    sent me there:
    https://newspapercomicstripsblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/little-nemo/

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  16. FieldhippieJanuary 14, 2021 at 9:23 PM

    Found it! Many thank yous.

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  17. Chris RJanuary 17, 2021 at 10:57 AM

    Thanks much, truly a giant in his field -a giant who shaped his field!

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