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[jpgray]

Winsor McCay was an artist of unbounded awesomeness, in many ways ahead of his time. To wit:

# The space adventure as simplistic social critique.

# Airship battles.

# Planet of the Apes.

# A forward-looking metaphor for the Youtube comments section.

# Apparently Louvre-worthy artsiness.

Seriously, this is great stuff from around 1900, the golden age of newspaper comics in the USA. The strip starts here. It's worth starting from the beginning, if his work grabs you at all.

(Disclaimer: beware of reflexively racist depictions of non-Westerners that are unfortunately very much of their time.)

[wourme]

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend is also very good.

http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/browse.php?year=&title=Dream+of+the+Rarebit+Fiend

[moi]

One of my all times favorite comics
I love the poetic aspect.

[TheDustin]

I love the overall feel of the comic, it's whimsical but not 'Disney' sappy. I recall that a panel was used in one of Neil Gaiman's short story collections, and I've been wanting to check it out since.

[gunmaggot]

I was gearing up to order the collection off Amazon, so thanks!  I will still get it, but this will be great until then.

[Hempuli‽]

I have two books of Nemo, and I love them. Winsor McCay really had some disturbing ideas!

[jpgray]

I was gearing up to order the collection off Amazon, so thanks!  I will still get it, but this will be great until then.

Yeah, the full-size collection is far superior to the online version in terms of color and general quality.  :-D

[moi]

I love art nouveau and you can't do much better than this comic

[JaJitsu]

[Hempuli‽]

Harr harr oh man that comic is great!

[gimymblert]

Little nemo and the colossi, it's windsor mc cay approved! 

Seriously mc cay was an early artist of modern comics and still more modern that many artist even the greatest one 

[Squiggly_P]

I love Winsor McKay's stuff.  His uncolored ink stuff especially.  He was also one of the first animators.  He did Gerty The Dinosaur -

- and he actually made a little nemo animated....  thing...  I dunno what exactly to call it, but it's freaking cool -



A couple decades ago they actually made a full-length animated Little Nemo film.  Ghibli actually had tried to get it made, but they'd been turned down (a pity).  A US company produced it, but it was animated in Japan.  It's not really that good, but some of the animation - especially the background animation - is pretty stunning, even today.  I think they must have had a certain amount of awe for the earlier stuff McKay did, since he did those animated bits by drawing the entire image every frame.  No layering.  Everything was fully drawn for every frame, thousands of times.  They actually made a comedic film about the difficulties McKay (fictionally) had while making that Nemo animation.

I went looking for a trailer for the Nemo animated flick, but found this instead.  It's kinda crap quality, but it's hilarious.  Little Nemo set to Korn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsOX2P-Pw64

[supershigi]

Little Nemo!  I love this story... I actually discovered it via the NES game back when I was a kid.  I really enjoyed the game and its music, so I was inspired later in life to check out the original comic.  The whimsical nature combined with the emphasis on airships reminded me a bit of Miyazaki.  I have to say, I was really disappointed with the animated film they made in the 90s... I liked the art style, but the dialogue was pretty terrible (even though the voice of Nemo was the same actor as Littlefoot in Land Before Time). 

Anyways, thank-you for sharing this!

[Cthulhu32]

We had a HUGE collection book of these when I was a kid. I remember being about four years old and flipping through the pages and imagining what was happening. There was one scene with a giant fish that always fascinated me. The fish I think eats Nemo, and it gets very bizarre.

The Nemo NES game was brilliant, I used to watch a neighbor play it through from start to finish. It was also really cool because it introduced a game play mechanic that you don't really see in later Capcom games from that era, where each level has a different physics/game system (Frog, Bee, Lizard, Gorilla, Mole).

Also, the Nemo Arcade game was different from that, feeling more like Magic Sword.


(one guy plays both characters) I liked the NES game better, but still cool to see so many different Capcom games come from such an old comic.

[Xion]

Great art but I wish I could read the words. They're such a strain and pain to read I feel my vision starting to wane and an ache in my brain. Regardless, well-deserved in its fame. Very pretty.

[supershigi]

The Nemo NES game was brilliant, I used to watch a neighbor play it through from start to finish. It was also really cool because it introduced a game play mechanic that you don't really see in later Capcom games from that era, where each level has a different physics/game system (Frog, Bee, Lizard, Gorilla, Mole).

I always thought the animal mounts were really cool... I liked how you could feed them candy and they'd fall asleep to give you a ride.  I really wish they'd make another movie or game based on Nemo, it was so much fun.

Also, the Nemo Arcade game was different from that, feeling more like Magic Sword.


(one guy plays both characters) I liked the NES game better, but still cool to see so many different Capcom games come from such an old comic.

Whoa what the heck??  I totally had no idea this even existed!  Thanks for posting the link... wow, the Nemo sprite is big and you play with that Flint (Flik?) guy.  After reading one of the video comments, I was prompted to check whether or not Yoko Shimomura did the music for the NES Nemo game as well... apparently she did!  I keep learning new soundtracks that I loved as a kid were composed by her.

[Cthulhu32]

Yeah the animal mounts were a really neat idea. I always thought giving animals candy to make them fall asleep so you could "sneak" into their bodies was something only a little kid would think of.

Oh wow, I've never read about Yoko Shimomura's work before. It seems like ever since she did Breath of Fire, she really leaned toward Squaresoft games. Mario RPG also had a huge place in my childhood, especially with the other super composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo.