With all the Winsor McCay-related links I’ve been posting here lately, it seems foolish of me not to include this new site, devoted to the seminal cartoonist’s life, work, and times:
Spring Lake, Michigan was the hometown of legendary cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. McCay is internationally recognized and loved in cartooning and animation circles. Sadly, however, at the moment not many people in his hometown have even heard of him. We want to change that! This site serves as a source of information to Anyone wanting to learn more about the brilliant Winsor McCay: his life, his work, and the many ways he’s been honored. It also serves as a means to introduce McCay fans around the world to his hometown, Spring Lake, Michigan.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:26 am
congrats. you posted one of the mccay cartoons that features a hideously racist caricature. kudos to you, blog@newsarama!
August 5th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Impie is certainly an unfortunate aspect of Little Nemo, but not so awful that it kills any and all appreciation of McCay. Same goes for Gasoline Alley. And while we’re at it, why not Howard and Lovecraft? Hell, let’s drag Shakespeare into this too. What are we supposed to do? Exhume their corpses and have them apologize for not adhering to OUR modern cultural standards instead of the ones they were immersed in? Hey, let’s drag John Hughes out of seclusion and lecture him for subjecting us to The Donger. blog@ newsarama, thanks for doing your job and directing people to the greatness of McCay. Nick? Be careful of your neck when you fall off your high horse.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Carlos, I see nothing wrong with celebrating what McCay did well because he was a terrific artist. But there are plenty of images that show McCay’s talent that don’t include his bigoted imagery. IMO, if you’re going to use one of McCay’s cartoons that contain racist content, at least note what part of the art you’re celebrating in post rather than letting the image speak for itself. While you find it unfortunate that Impie was in McCay’s art, I find it unfortunate that blog@ chose to use this image.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I don’t personally find the character of Impie unfortunate, no. In fact I got over his depiction very quickly, as I’m sure most if not all fans of McCay have. At worst, his initial appearance is a distraction, but one that is easily overcome. When the Newark Museum exhibited McCay’s work, they didn’t weed out Impie for fear of offending people. blog@ need not either. Little Nemo is a 100 year old comic reflective of its time, but above all, it is gorgeous work from an amazing artist.