Little Nemo rides a lion

[thistleburr]

I love the artwork in this series, but I thought this one was particularly striking. This scan is from The Comic Strip Library, where you can read a whole lot of Little Nemo strips!

Comments

[icon_uk]

Little Nemo is always just so... sumptuous to look at (Not a word I'd use normally, but it fits here I think). It's not so much "read" as "experienced". :)

[greenmask]

It fits SO well.

Sumptuous.

[meatwhichdreams]

Oh, how I concur with sumptuous.

[thistleburr]

I think that's the perfect word to describe it.

[citygod]

Have you seen them full-size? Definitely an "experience". It's like IMAX.

[mrstatham]

One thing I always find interesting about McKay is that he didn't really have any sort of standards down for his speech bubbles. The art is gorgeous, obviously top of the line for newssheet printing when it was published, but the speech bubbles are always really small, and really cramped, so much so that the letters and whatnot drop down to the next line.

Beautiful stuff, though.

[freddylloyd]

And McCay’s dialogue isn't great shakes, anyway. Together with the cramped balloons, that makes me think he lettered as the last step rather than (as in mid-century production-line comics) between pencils and inks.

Sometimes I just read McCay's first panels to understand the set-up, and after that just revel in the draftsmanship.

[icon_uk]

Though remember that most of his stories are dreams, and the dialogue in dreams isn't always particularly coherent.

[thistleburr]

I agree - I think it's oddly suited for the subject material, although I don't think that's intentional!

[bradhanon]

One of the nicest Christmas presents I ever got was the big-ass Little Nemo collection. Just a joy to read. The strip did go downhill after a while, though, there's no denying it.

Incidentally, other s_ders with a thing for extremely old-school newspaper strips need to dig Barnacle Press, which has massive free archives of Buster Brown, the Katzenjammer Kids, Bringing Up Father, and everything else you've either heard of or haven't. I found it very useful in decoding the references in some of my old Tijuana Bible reprints, among other things.

[icon_uk]

Oooh, looks like fun! :)

[thistleburr]

I love Barnacle Press :D So much Buster Brown entertainment XD