EDITORIAL REVIEWS


"By Tim Janson, amazon.com reviewer"

THE FOURTH VOLUME IN THE OUTSTANDING SERIES, September 27, 2005

I've always felt it was important to preserve our popular culture which is why a company like Checker Books is so valuable. Checker has been taking classic comic strips and collecting them into book form and bringing characters like Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon, and Dick Tracy to a whole new generation of fans. Another project that Checker has undertaken is reprinting the works of legendary, early 20th century cartoonist Winsor McCay, creator of Little Nemo in Slumberland.

As little Nemo has seen frequent re-printings over the years, Checker is reprinting all of McCay's other works including his other strips as well as editorial cartoons. This is the fourth in what will eventually be an eleven volume set of these works, and most of this work is seeing print for the first time in nearly one hundred years! The first part of the book reprints his late 1907 to early 1908 "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" strips wherein the characters have surrealistic, bizarre, and darkly humorous dreams induced by a late night stack of Welsh Rarebit before bed. Now I've never eaten rarebit before but I take it that this concoction of melted cheese, beer, hot sauce/pepper spread over toast was the early 20th century equivalent to a convenience store burrito. Invariably the characters wake up swearing to never eat rarebit again. While the joke itself wears thin after several pages, the delight is seeing what McCay does with his characters while they are in their dreams. They turn into animals, are beset by tiny devils, see flying elephants, etc. You'll notice the strips are signed "Silas". Due to his contract, McCay could not sign them with his own name.

By far the most interesting part of the book is the section that reprints many of McCay's editorial cartoons that he did while working for the New York Herald, New York Telegram, and New York American. Unconfined by the panel format, these cartoons really show off his artistic talent and eye for fine line and detail illustration, not to mention the very edgy nature of the cartoons. One shows Uncle Sam shoveling heaps of undesirable aliens into a barrel labeled "deportation". Another piece with an anti-technology theme depicts a giant, mechanical dinosaur ravaging a city...all this some 70 years before Mecha Godzilla would appear on film! Other editorial cartoons tackle subjects such as World War I and the anti-German sentiment, the plight of American Indians, crime, and poverty. Subjects as topical today as they were back then.

If you're unfamiliar with McCay, this collection of his early works from Checker Books is a great place to start. Hats off to Checker for keeping his work alive.

Reviewed by Tim Janson