EDITORIAL REVIEWS


"Publishers Weekly"

McCay, the first great comic-strip artist, is most admired for "Little Nemo in Slumberland," about a small boy's dream adventures in a world of intricate architecture and astonishing changes in the sizes of figures and settings. McCay forged the situation and some characters of "Nemo" during the years 1903-10 in the strips generously sampled here: "Tales of the Jungle Imps," "Little Sammy Sneeze," "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend," and "A Pilgrim's Progress." The imps of the "Tales," a set of Just So Stories knockoffs, reappeared in "Nemo" (unfortunately, some think, because of their appearance--like Bart Simpson in blackface). Sammy Sneeze prefigures Nemo as a little-boy protagonist. "Rarebit Fiend" anticipates the dreaming and dream world of "Nemo," though with a new dreamer in each installment. The allegorical "Pilgrim's Progress" is dreamlike and focuses, like "Nemo," on a single protagonist. As in "Nemo," each episode of these series is a self-contained narrative; the richness of McCay's artwork, especially notable in "Little Sammy Sneeze," makes them forerunners of the graphic novel. And several episodes remain hilarious.

Ray Olson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.


"Rain Taxi Review of Books"

“Popular art in the USA owes a lot to Winsor McCay – Maurice Sendak once compared him to Lewis Carroll and Buster Keaton in the same sentence – so it is fitting to see his early cartoon work so assiduously collected.”

Stepan Chapman



"Starland.com, Michael Vance"

Winsor McCay: Early Works #1     

It is more difficult to blaze a trail than to follow one, and Winsor McCay was a trailblazer.

Winsor McCay: Early Works, the first volume in a collection of  McCay's work as a comic strip pioneer, reprints four of his strips, Tales of the Jungle Imps (1903), Little Sammy Sneeze (1904), Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend (1905), and A Pilgrim's Progress (1905).

McCay's groundbreaking  bird's-eye views, unusual perspectives, outstanding composition and inking, all added to the popularity of his incredible artwork. His background as an  architect and the dreamlike quality in each of his comic strips seeded by his amazing imagination place him firmly as a giant in the pantheon of comics artists and writers. Because they were created at the turn of the 20th century, the visual history in his work adds an unintentional joy to these four marvelous comic strips.

McCay's dialog wasn't chopped liver either, but for those looking for character development and plot, prepare to be slightly disappointed. McCay's work focused on ideas, not story.

McCay was a genius, but not a faultless one.

Each of these strips was built around one idea that was reworked over and over. Because you wont be reading one strip a week as originally published, this redundancy of idea can become irritating.

Tales of the Jungle Imps was created for children, and recounts how animals received unique characteristics like a tiger's stripes. Little Sammy Sneeze  is about a boy with a huge sneeze and the chaos it creates. Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend reveals the bizarre dreams brought about by eating fried cheese, and A Pilgrim's Progress focuses on a man's attempt to rid himself of "dull care".

Early Works is highly recommended for comic strip fans or students of the history of the most popular artform in the world.


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