Daydreams and Nightmares by Winsor McCay

The first, “From Sketchbook to Animation,” (1927) describes what is required in order to be a cartoonist.

Two writing selections by McCay himself are included in Daydreams and Nightmares. These dramatic renderings remain powerful to this day. In these drawings, McCay departs from the clear-line style and renders his works with tightly hatched pen and ink, with careful attention to compositional balance and foregrounding. Sermons on Paper presents a series of single-panel editorial cartoons with either visionary-technocratic or moralistic themes. Sammy’s “Ahh aw kaa CHOW” got me almost every time. The simplicity of these strips made me laugh out loud repeatedly. The gravy at a formal supper is sprayed all over Grandpa. A plough horse is frightened and bolts while moving a house on rollers into position, dismantling the house. These gags place Little Sammy in a variety of situations where his sneezing upsets the order of things. With Little Sammy Sneeze the punchline changes. The “Midsummer Daydreams” chapter includes a number of variations on the “and then I woke up” theme, including multi-panel cartoons entitled “Midsummer Daydreams,” “Daydreams,” “It Was Only a Dream,” “Dreams of a Lobster Fiend,” and “Rabid Reveries.” More hallucinatory episodes follow with a full section of “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend” strips. McCay’s newspaper fantasy illustrations are just that: phantasmagorical scenes of incredible scale that set the stage for the artist’s later dreamscapes. The illustrations’ titles are a glimpse into the subject matter of these works: “If Shakespeare Should Come Back to Earth,” “If William Penn Should Come Back to Earth,” “If Nero Should Come Back to Earth,” etc. Midsummer Daydreams and Other Comic Strips (1904-1925)Įven early on in McCay’s career, we can see evidence of his imagining alternative universes and possible worlds through a series of cartoons depicting historical figures living in modern times.Newspaper Fantasy Illustrations (1903-1912).

Winsor McCay (1869?-1934) is best known for Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905-1914, 1924-1927), a magnum opus by virtually any cartooning standard, and Gertie the Dinosaur (1909), acknowledged as one of the first great animated cartoons of his and any era.ĭaydreams and Nightmares: The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay, 1898-1934 edited by Richard Marschall (Fantagraphics, 2005) features McCay’s additional contributions, with chapters on:

Daydreams and Nightmares by Winsor McCay