Early Works, Vol. 3

Early Works- Winsor McCay #3

by Winsor McCay

More "Tales of the Rarebit Fiend" (1907 strips), "Little Sammy Sneeze," "A Pilgrim's Progress," (1907 strips) and dozens of McCay's editorial illustrations from his New York period.

Genres: Comics

200 pages, Paperback

Published July 28, 2004

About the author

Was an American cartoonist and animator, best known for the comic strip Little Nemo (begun 1905) and the animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). For legal reasons, he worked under the pen name Silas on the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.
A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades. His comic strip work has influenced generations of artists, including creators such as William Joyce, André LeBlanc, Moebius, Maurice Sendak, Chris Ware and Bill Watterson.

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some pages are beautifully reproduced. Most, not so much.

[Osman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's not to like about Winsor McCay?
This is a cartoonist decades ahead of his time who set the template for the future of comic strips. Of course well known for Little Nemo this current book explores his earlier strips.

While Sammy Sneeze and Pilgim's Progress may not appeal so much to modern humour the amazing Rarebit Fiend is never less than mind-blowing, and often hilarious. With it's involved dream sequences it is more than a trial run for Nemo's adventures: Mccay kept the series running for over a decade alongside of his more enduring opus.

The quality of drawing is superb, although one might wish for a bigger formatted book as the (presumed) reduction from the original size presents some effort for my eyes (at least)
One simply boggles at the work load this man must have endured with the colossal output he produced.

A wonderful treat

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably enjoyed these strips more than those contained in the previous volume, but these still leave me rather cold. I can appreciate the pure weirdness of McCay's visions, but I don't know that I'm enthralled enough to pursue this series of early works any further. The problem has persisted from the prior volume of many of the reprints being very degraded in quality -- I'm not sure if there was an aesthetic reason behind the decision to not attempt any restoration, but in some places the dialogue is unreadable so at least a footnote would have been helpful.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Winsor McCay's illustrations but the cartoons are very dated. I see this series as historical and more of a study of his style, not so much for entertainment. Nemo was entertaining...these were redundant and meant for a certain era only in my opinion.