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s career as a cartoonist he managed to squander away most of his wealth before he died in 1954 mutt and jeff established a cartoon aesthetic early on that has influenced many generations of cartoonists two cartoonists that appear to have a strong influence are robert crumb and kevin huizenga crumb employs a lot of these gangly characters with floppy feet and cheap suits as well as the highly stylized faces and gestures crumb s mark making is also very similar to mutt and jeff i m specifically thinking about the technique that crumb employs while rendering shading and texture into a characters pants both crumb and fisher use this contour hatch technique that suggests texture as well as form to the characters crumb also uses a lot of characters wearing these old fashioned suits and although it may be crumb being nostalgic it does specifically evoke images of mutt kevin huizenga ganges 1 2006 kevin huizenga is a more contemporary artist who also seems to employ some of the same tricks that bud fisher and his assistants used the black button eyes the wispy line weight rendered with nib huizenga also uses the contour line hatching in his character s pants as well perhaps it s a short hand that has stuck with cartoonists over the years while i was reading some mutt and jeff collections i couldn t help but notice an incredible amount of black face characters in the strips early run the strip loses a lot of personality when i see these characters in the strip it feels like another artifact of america s struggle with bigotry that continues to this day my argument is that not only is black face incredibly offensive but it s also just really bad character design and probably even more so it s really lazy writing strips without gutters have come back in style recently as well although i think many contemporary cartoonists have failed to use this method effectively some cartoonists have turned the idea on it s head and created a visual unity in their pages by using intricate backgrounds that repeat in a sequence and create this textile pattern that makes a page feel whole albeit difficult to read ron rege jr comes to mind the above essay is 2010 sean knickerbocker all rights reserved it is posted with permission ________________________________________ about the author student sean knickerbocker has a lively blog website sean knickerbocker vs comics which just about says it all ps you can also visit with sean on facebook if you wish and he chooses to friend you _______ further reading resources cover to the mutt and jeff cartoons book two 1911 from the ball publishing company these were among the first american bound comic strip collections ever published and historically among the first american comic books sold image from smithsonian institute libraries nbm s collected edition of bud fisher s mutt and jeff forever nuts the early years of mutt and jeff 2007 is still available at amazon com here s the link the current availability of the rare early 20th century ball publishing company and cupples leon company reprint collections of the mutt and jeff cartoons can also be found at abebooks com happy hunting we also recommend you check out pulpnivoria s gallery of al smith s cicero s cat comic strips which are free and visible online right now via this link enjoy a number of mutt and jeff collections are in the schulz library s permanent collection for more info on the mutt and jeff animated cartoons and links to viewing some of them start at cartoonbrew com s animation website blog here s a link to a 2008 post citing a recent preservation effort dedicated to rescuing some of the mutt and jeff animated shorts leave a comment posted in historic tagged a mutt al smith billy liverpool bud fisher cicero s cat ed mack famous funnies george breisacher mutt and jeff san francisco chronicle sean knickerbocker survey 1 comic strip essays rio aubry taylor on little nemo in slumberland posted on 11 15 2010 by srbissette 1 comment note this is the fourth in a series of essays written by the current class of 2012 for survey of the drawn story i ccs s comics history class they are posted here in approximate chronological order of when their chosen subjects comic strips were either first published or in their heyday these were class assignments and should be enjoyed in that context these are not necessarily indicative of the work the individual artists writers would do in paid professional venues this is work assigned in class with a tight deadline completed while juggling many other class assignments that said it is all of high caliber or we would not be sharing it with you here enjoy all illustrations and captions in this particular post were incorporated into the original essay along with captions or comments in brackets like this by the survey i instructor stephen bissette to enhance this public post as were the author info and further reading notes after the essay and author s footnotes ________________________________________________ little nemo 1904 1915 by rio aubry taylor this collection published in 2000 by taschen under the evergreen imprint purports to include every weekly sunday strip featuring little nemo from 1904 to 1915 though not presenting winsor mccay s strips at their original size of 16 x 21 inches this book s sheer girth makes up for its lack of dimensions as it is the measurements of the book about 9 5 x 12 5 inches ensure that the strips are large enough to be readable and that the collection on a whole is not unwieldy the reproduction of the colors and line work are crisp bright and pleasing to the eye and of course mccay s art is beautiful and surreal this collection showcases some of the best surreal comics produced at a critical point in the evolution the medium it also demonstrates how mccay s work does a better job at dreamlike story telling than either the traditional literature that came before or the modern media of today growing up in the 80 s and 90 s i had always known that the character of little nemo existed in the multifarious milieu of children s entertainment i did not however realize his extreme significance to the history of american cartooning i mostly knew nemo as the star of the popular nintendo title little nemo the dream master which i vaguely recognized as being based on an animated film the game had nemo explore large multi platformed levels as he threw candy at animals who then let him ride on their backs in order to defeat enemies as with many video games of this type i absolutely loved it and the surreal backgrounds and characters seemed totally natural to my young mind looking back on it now the game s very existence is a standing testament to mccay s vision and influence i sometimes wonder how many people my age got turned on to mccay s strips after being introduced to the character in the video game scene as is stated in bill blackbeard s brief introduction the original run of nemo s adventures is called little nemo in slumberland but was changed to in the land of wonderful dreams in 1911 when mccay changed publishers the earliest strips showcase nemo s attempts to reach slumberland through his dreams always aided by a different denizen of king morpheus the ruler of said kingdom who wishes for nemo to be a playmate for his daughter the format of these strips is straightforward and evidences mccay s evolving style and penchant for storytelling in these simple adventures nemo struggles to make it through dangerous and frightening dreamscapes with the aid of king morpheus s various strange and fantastical servants however by the end of each strip nemo always seems to get frazzled and lose his bearings causing him to wake up in a tearful fright the last panel of every strip shows nemo suddenly awake in his bed where he sometimes must be consoled by one of the adult members of his family these early pieces often make gags of nemo s parents scolding him for eating some strange combination of food before bed the next time your mother lets you eat raw onions and ice cream before bedtime i ll well though i find these stories incredibly entertaining i wonder if some of them may have been rather frightening to children at the time it seems as though mccay may have intended for his strip to be read by a slightly more mature audience for example at one point nemo must travel through a kingdom consisting of people made entirely of glass by the time the strip is over nemo has accidentally shattered all of that week s supporting characters in another strip a giant turkey tries to bring nemo to slumberland by devouring his house and everything in it nemo s parents feature in this dream but get lost when the turkey drops nemo into a sea of cranberry sauce nemo then wakes up wondering about the fate of his parents the strip seems to imply that nemo s parents might have died within his dream a heavy notion for the average child i find the first twenty or so weeks worth of material to be gratifying but slightly irksome to follow these early strips showcase mccay s evolving styling as a cartoonist as he experiments with how best to present his narrative my largest trouble with these strips are the continually present captions at the bottom of each panel these captions narrate the action of the panels in such a way as to make the pictures redundant i find the captions especially distracting because the sentences usually do not end with their connected panels but rather continue to the next this creates a disconnected flow by allowing for two parallel tellings of the same story the captions appear to be broken down by an arbitrary and predetermined amount space rather than anything else though this style can sometimes be aggravating for the modern reader it serves as a piece of history for those interested in the evolution both of mccay s style and comics in general of course mccay was a pioneer in his field and it did not take him long to modify his work and make it better in fact throughout this entire collection the observant reader can see evidences of mccay s experimentation and breakthroughs flip and king morpheus from little nemo in slumberland after about twenty weekly strips mccay begins to summarize each strip at the outset before telling his stories simply with the action and dialogue within the panels this lends to a more pleasant reading experience that gets even better ten weeks later when mccay abandons narrative captions altogether and begins to tell his stories almost entirely through dialogue though some exposition sometimes occurs at the beginning of each strip the author usually incorporates it into the tales through conversations between the characters or in story written communication such as signs or letters as stated above the earliest strips are simple and can generally be seen as stand alone episodes the story really picks up however when mccay introduces flip who soon becomes a main character once introduced and until nemo finally meets his future playmate flip s sole existence seems to be to divert nemo from reaching the princess whom flip would like to woo himself standing in stark contrast to slumberland s motto of don t wake up flip s hat actually reads wake up and when he first encounters nemo that is exactly what our protagonist does the initial rivalry between flip and nemo gives mccay a solid chance to elaborate on both nemo and flip s respective personal characters whereas the previous strips present nemo as a curious but rather impersonal hero these strips showcase nemo s general nobleness and outstanding sense of what is right and wrong as the story progresses these traits contrast heavily with flip s rascally and somewhat needy personality in this sunday november 13 1910 episode of little nemo in slumberland nemo and his pals fly over coney island such as it was before the fire that wiped out much of coney island s own dreamland and more in this story sequence flip ended up lost on the subway system and stranded in brooklyn _________ though paired together as adversaries nemo helps flip on more than one occasion simply because he believes helping people is the right thing to do when a slumberland ally cautions nemo not to help flip who is marooned at the top of a tower after a failed flight attempt nemo replies i can t help it i can t see anybody in such a fix no siree nemo who at this time has become a giant then proceeds to help flip down but is later punished for his deed by being shrunk down to mouse like proportions this however does not stop nemo some twenty strips later from saving flip from being executed by king morpheus s royal guard this marks a major change in the series as flip evolves from nemo s supposed worst enemy to a beloved and cantankerous ally at this point mccay s narrative really reaches a stride at first nemo and the princess constantly try to avoid flip as though he is an annoying neighbor but later join him in a series of adventures outside and within the royal palace of slumberland during the course of their exploits they meet a host of interesting and colorful recurring characters and even pick up another regular ally in the form of the unfortunately stereotyped imp the imp who appears in a supposedly tribal getup and speaks an incomprehensible nonsense language follows flip nemo and the princess on their adventures though mccay depicts him outwardly as a savage in black face the imp proves to be a valuable companion and friend to the characters who gladly employ his help when needed the stereotypical appearance of the imp that mccay employs though popular at the time is now recognized by readers with modern sensibilities to be undeniably racist the fact that the imp becomes an important part of nemo s entourage however is testament to both nemo and the imp s noble character and mccay s sense of youthful friendship the question remains what benefits can a modern audience get from reading this collection of strips these artfully rendered adventures offer something that can only be hinted at outside the comics medium and is still unfortunately rarely found even there a truly surreal entertainment experience though technology has grown in leaps and bounds these strips still represent an artistic peak in dreamlike storytelling for which the medium of comics presents a unique link between more traditional literature and newer forms of entertainment technology mccay s nemo strips offer superb and fantastical art that bring the reader into a special world that could not be presented in any other way whereas traditional literature can present a narrative with language alone comics have the power to immerse the reader in a visual world of the artist s choosing in this mccay succeeds in presenting his own unique graphic language in a precise and insightful narrative written descriptions could simply not suffice to describe the truly splendid imagery he creates to tell his stories as neither could a draftsman of lesser talent by the same token newer tec...
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