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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Little Nemo in Slumberland </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=360 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=194 WIDTH=350 ALT="Little Nemo (center) with the Princess of Slumberland and Dr. Pill. Artist: Winsor McCay." SRC="nemo.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"><H1>LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Original Medium:</B> Newspaper comics <BR><B>Appearing in:</B> The New York Herald <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1905 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Winsor McCay<FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> Most of the prominent comic strips of the 1890s and 19-aughts are remembered today as  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> pioneers. <I>Little Nemo in Slumberland</I> is among the first to be remembered for its outstanding quality. Even today, it is regarded as one of the high points in the history of comics. <P> Winsor McCay worked as a sign painter, vaudeville performer and freelance <A HREF="glossary.htm#cartoonist">cartoonist</A> in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the late 19th century and the first couple of years of the 20th. In 1903, when he was probably in his mid-30s (the exact date of his birth is unknown), he drew his first color Sunday feature, <I>Tales of the Jungle Imps,</I> for the Cincinnati <I>Enquirer.</I> McCay provided illustrations for poems and stories written by "Felix Fiddle" (a pseudonym of editor George Chester). It was probably <I>Jungle Imps</I> that brought him to the attention of newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennet, and led to his move to New York later that year. <P> In 1905, while working at Bennett's New York <I>Herald</I> on such features as <I>Hungry Henrietta</I> and <I><A HREF="sneeze.htm">Little Sammy Sneeze,</A></I> McCay started his two most famous comic strips, both of which were about nocturnal adventures. <I><A HREF="rarebit.htm">Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend</A></I> had no continuing characters, only a continuing motif — nightmares brought on by indigestion. And <I>Little Nemo in Slumberland,</I> which started on October 15 of that year, was about a little boy (whose name, by the way, is Latin for "nobody") and his excursions in a fabulously surreal fantasy kingdom. Each week, Nemo's adventures would be interrupted when, in the last <A HREF="glossary.htm#panel">panel</A> of the <A HREF="glossary.htm#sunday">page,</A> he would wake up. <P> Little Nemo quickly transcended his newspaper origins. The character was heavily merchandised as early as 1906, appearing in a series of McCay-drawn postcards, as well as books, games, and children's clothing. In 1908, Victor Herbert (author of <I>Babes in Toyland</I>) wrote a play about Nemo, which was performed on Broadway. In 1911, McCay, who in addition to his accomplishments as a newspaper cartoonist, was also a pioneer of animation (his <A HREF="gertie.htm"><I>Gertie the Dinosaur</I></A> was perhaps animation's first success), created an animated version of the character in 1911, making him the first comics character adapted into that medium. He also inspired a minor genre of whimsical fantasy starring kids, including <A HREF="b-bounce.htm">Billy Bounce,</A> <A HREF="bobmkbel.htm">Bobby Make-Believe</A> and <A HREF="nibsy.htm">Nibsy the Newsboy in Funny Fairyland.</A> <P> In 1911, McCay was lured away from Bennet's paper by <A HREF="king.htm">William Randolph Hearst.</A> The "Nemo" feature came to an end on April 23 of that year, only to be reborn on the 30th in the Hearst papers, under the title <I>In the Land of Wonderful Dreams.</I> It continued under that title until 1914, when McCay went back to work for Bennet. The strip was revived in the 1920s, but ran only a couple of years before ending once and for all in 1927. McCay died in 1934. <P> Robert McCay, the cartoonist's son (and original model for Nemo) tried twice to resurrect the strip, once in the late 1930s and again a decade later. The second attempt ended in 1947, and that was the end of <I>Little Nemo in Slumberland</I> as a newspaper feature. <P> But the strip was <I>far</I> from forgotten! In 1966, it was part of an exhibit of McCay's work at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the few such exhibits ever devoted to a comic strip cartoonist. Maurice Sendak, the highly-acclaimed children's author and illustrator, cited McCay as a major influence on his own work. Publisher Woody Gelman reprinted much of the strip's run in the 1940s, and even more in the '70s. In 1995, in company with <I><A HREF="toonrvil.htm">Toonerville Folks,</A> <A HREF="br_starr.htm">Brenda Starr,</A> <A HREF="terry.htm">Terry & the Pirates</A></I> and other "Comic Strip Classics", it appeared on a U.S. postage stamp. Between 1989 and 1993, Fantagraphics Books reprinted both of the early runs of the strip — Bennet and Hearst — in a six-volume set which stands, today, as the strip's definitive edition. <P> Even today, nearly a century after its first appearance, <I>Little Nemo in Slumberland</I> has seldom been equalled, and perhaps never surpassed, as an example of the sheer beauty of which the comics form is capable. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! 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