Press Release
Winsor McCay was perhaps the greatest cartoonist of all time, and the Sunday newspaper strip Little Nemo in Slumberland was his greatest creation. Detailing the adventures of its titular character in The Land of Wonderful Dreams, the early twentieth century opus is one of the most inventive and visually stunning works of American art. A century later, the comic medium is still racing to keep up with the richness, draftsmanship, imagination, and wonder of McCay’s fantastic storytelling and wild Slumberland universe.
In Locust Moon Press’ upcoming anthology LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM, many of the world’s finest cartoonists will pay tribute to the master and his masterpiece by creating new Little Nemo strips, following their own voices down paths lit by McCay. Contributors include Paul Pope, Bill Sienkiewicz, Neal Adams, Peter Bagge, Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Jeremy Bastian, John Cassaday, Jim Rugg, Becky Cloonan, Scott Morse, Camilla d’Errico, David Petersen, J.G. Jones, Chrissie Zullo, and Mark Buckingham, among many others.
To be published in early 2014 as both a newspaper and a hardcover book at the full size of the original Little Nemo broadsheet pages (16″ x 21″), this book will celebrate McCay’s endless legacy, chart his influence on generations of modern cartoonists, and most of all shine a light back on an artist who has given his art form so much, and whose work should be more widely known.
This is a love song for Winsor McCay, Little Nemo, and the limitless possibilities of comics.
Locust Moon is a retail store, art gallery, and small press based in West Philadelphia. Their first book, ONCE UPON A TIME MACHINE (published through Dark Horse in the fall of 2012) was just nominated for a Harvey award for Best Anthology. Aside from LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM, Locust Moon’s other current and upcoming projects include the just-debuted periodical comics & illustration magazine QUARTER MOON, and 36 LESSONS IN SELF-DESTRUCTION, a collection of the mini comics of the infamous underground Philadelphia cartoonist Rob Woods. Locust Moon also hosts an annual comics festival, to be held this year on October 5.
1 Comment
Windsor McCay was one of those artists which we students of comic book history often hear about but rarely see, and usually it’s the same six Nemo in Slumberland strips that get reprinted over and over again. The man was a marvel – the only artists I’ve seen who could hold a candle to him are Michael William Kaluta and, on a good day, Howard Chaykin. Of course, McCay only did one strip a week, no dailies, and had the full page to work with, and this was in the day when newspaper pages were significantly larger than they are today. The man was a master, and you rarely notice that every single strip was pretty much the same joke every week. Fantastic thing happens, often with bed coming alive and running amuck. At the climax of the fantasy, disaster happens (usually the bed tripping, dumping Nemo) and he wakes up, having fallen out of bed, and declares no more Welsh Rarebit for him! Even if there were craftsmen in the comics industry who are capable of such dense, wonderful art, the reduction in the page size of newspaper comics means their art will never get showcased. And that’s the pity with the slow demise of the newspaper industry – kids in the future will never know the wonders and delight of the Sunday funnies! I had the joy of reading such things as Pogo, Little Orphan Annie, Barney Google, Dick Tracy, etc. in the papers when I was a kid. I still enjoy the newspaper funnies when I can find them, but the magic has almost entirely gone out of the industry, with gag-a-day lasagna eating cats and their ilk entirely crowding the fantasy and adventure strips off the pages. We’ll never see anybody like Windsor McCay again.