Little Nemo up, up, and away
Meet Little Nemo, a diminutive hero of comic narrative, but
one of the greatest dream voyagers of the 20th century. The master creation of
Winsor McCay (1869–1934), Nemo inspired generations of artists with his
weekly adventures from bed to Slumberland, a realm of colorful companions, psychedelic scenery, and thrilling escapades.
This book gathers
all of Little Nemo’s colorful airship adventures in Slumberland, totaling 69 installments, first published between January 1910 and April 1911. Brimming with sky-high imagination, these airship adventures represent some of the
most ambitious artwork and exciting tales of McCay’s revolutionary comic and of his much-loved dream voyager. The installments see
Nemo flying to the moon, to Mars, and on a triumphant tour of major sights and metropolises across the East Coast of America and Canada and beyond, including Yellowstone National Park, Niagara Falls, and
New York City.
An introductory essay from art historian Alexander Braun contextualizes these airship episodes within the broader
Little Nemo series as well as McCay’s ambitious and exceptionally influential career. Braun reveals how the airship journey was not only
a pioneering narrative arc in the early days of comic but also a “
creative bombshell” which propelled McCay towards further endeavors, namely the first animated film in history.
The author
Visual artist Alexander Braun (born 1966) has received numerous accolades and scholarships, and his work has appeared in several exhibitions. Alongside his independent artistic activities, he studied art history in Bochum and Berlin (his 1998 doctorate thesis was on the work of the American installation artist Robert Gober). Over the past two decades, Braun has compiled one of the most extensive collections on the history of comics. Since 2008, he has curated several museum exhibits on this topic, including a comprehensive retrospective on the work of Winsor McCay in 2012/2013. In 2011, he founded the German Academy of Comic Art.
Winsor McCay. The Airship Adventures of Little Nemo
Hardcover, 13.7 x 19.5 cm, 0.45 kg, 288 pages
ISBN 978-3-8365-6637-7
Edition: German
ISBN 978-3-8365-6535-6
Edition: English
In the French and German editions all panels, speech bubbles, and other texts are translated from their original English into French and German, respectively.
