Early Works, Vol. 1

Early Works- Winsor McCay #1

by Winsor McCay

A comprehensive, fully re-mastered collection of turn-of-the-century rarities from cartooning and animation pioneer, Winsor McCay: "Tales of the Jungle Imps," "Little Sammy Sneeze," "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend," and "Pilgrim's Progress." Best known for Little Nemo in Slumberland, and the seminal animated feature Gertie the Dinosaur, McCay puts his artistic talent and whimsical humor on full display here.

Genres: Comics, Art

200 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 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

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four early strips by McCay, including Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, the complete run of Tales of the Jungle Imps, Little Sammy Sneeze and Pilgrim's Progress.

Of these, Rarebit Fiend is probably the most interesting and creative - surreal dream cartoons that always end with the character waking up and swearing to never eat rarebit again. McCay is a terrific illustrator and designer, and he comes up with some remarkable twists to keep the formula from getting too old.

Jungle Imps was, by far, the hardest to read. McCay only handled the illustrations, with scripts by a Cincinnati newspaper editor, but the reproduction is small and makes reading them difficult. The playful prose was mostly all right, always playing on the theme of how the Jungle Imps badgered jungle animals and forced them to evolve in their current manner so that the animals could fight back against the Imps. McCay's art very strong - though it's hard not to be deeply bothered by his portrayal of the Jungle Imps as racist, vaudeville caricatures.

Sammy Sneeze is another formula strip, about a boy who sneezes every strip, allowing McCay to draw mass carnage.

Pilgrim is a guy searching for life on Easy Street, while carrying a briefcase with his daily worries. It's interesting, though McCay's sense of dialogue takes a lot of getting used to.

I enjoyed seeing some of the earliest comic strips, and hope to read more McCay, but I must admit, it takes a while to get through a volume like this.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some classics, but not easy to read.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can shift your gaze a little, moving your 21st C. focus away from the casual racism of some of his creations, you can see the beautiful line McCay creates in his art. I really enjoy his ability to build up from a very simple idea--a late-meal induced nightmare, a boy whose only function is to sneeze--to a dynamic scene that is both chaotic and elegant, like an explosion in slow motion. One would think that such talent would have anticipated something greater in today's newspapers than Cathy's impassioned sweat drops or the shadowed footprints in Family Circus.

[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.

[W · Rating 1 out of 5]

Glad this racist is dead; I hope he got sent to black person hell.