McCay, Herriman and Schulz

Winsor McCay is someone who I will never forget. When I was young, I had this long video about dinosaurs made up of several different scenes. It was called "Dinosaur Movies" with Don Glut as the host. "Gertie the Dinosaur" was one of the shorts in the video. I'm not sure what stood out so much for that video, but I will never forget Gertie. Something about it just fascinated me and out of that whole video, it's the most memorable for me. I know Gertie isn't his most famous work, but out of everything he's done, that's the one that I will never forget. Although now that I've read more and seen more, I've got to say that Winsor McCay is an amazing man. I very much enjoy his work and his personality even more. It's entertaining that in his videos, he showed other people's reactions to his work. In the "Little Nemo" animation, I think it's very funny that the other comic artists just laughed at him until they proved him wrong. It was like everyone was always doubting him, but he would always prove them wrong. Something about that just humors me. His personality combined in his work is just a great thing that I'm glad to have seen. This might be a strange parallel to make, but he reminds me of Elvis in a way. They both were heavily controlled by their agents or managers. They were kept from doing their work freely; Winsor for his animation and Elvis for his acting.

As for "Little Nemo", I had the chance to read some of it. I read excerpts of it and I really do enjoy it. I wish I was that kid. Nemo becomes the center of some strange world and all the other characters are centered around him. I know that it's recommended that you don't focus on the style, but I really do enjoy that as well. I can definitely see the influence of Art Nouveau. I've always found that a particularly interesting art movement. It's great that McCay can just draw you into his world. You really feel a part of slumberland. As if this could be your dream. And it really could be! I didn't think I knew "Little Nemo" until I got to Ringling and heard about it. But when I was looking up information on it, I found images from the movie and now that I've seen that, I remember. I have seen that movie. I remember the floating bed that he was on. It really did scare me when I was little. That black goop (I have no idea what other word to use for that) that was always following him and trying to get to him. It was a freaky movie to see back when I was young! But the comic itself is something that I really enjoyed getting to read. The concept behind the comic is something that is very enjoyable, no matter what age you are.

Over the past week I also got to read some of "Krazy Kat" by George Herriman. It's not exactly a comic I enjoy too much. I do like the love triangle going on, and how Krazy Kat never is determined as a male of female. They say both, so it's a bit confusing. Although usually all you hear is Krazy Kat instead of he or she. But other than the love triangle, I didn't really get into it too much. It just reminds me of a strange version of Tom and Jerry where the cat likes the mouse, but the mouse still attacks the cat. It's just sort of strange. But I didn't really read too much of it, so maybe I just needed to give it more time.

I also read various "Peanuts" comics by Charles Schulz. I've always enjoyed these comics. I like the fact that although it is something I read when I was little, I can still read it and enjoy it. It's not just for children. It's actually a much more mature comic when you go back and read it again. It has many concepts in it that a kid wouldn't understand. For instance, the website I read them on has a different comic each day. The one posted on the 11th was originally dated from September 14th, 1962. Linus and Charlie are talking bout Charlie being slow in reading. Linus tells him that it could be because of "mixed brain dominance". I would definitely not have understood this when I was little. I had no idea what that was or what ambidextrous meant. It's a very intelligent comic for little kids to be reading. Of course they end it in a more comical way by Linus saying "If this is true, we can rule out poor vision as the cause of your slow reading." and Lucy steps in saying: "have you ruled out stupidity?" So it has a mixed balance of adult and childish humor; something I wouldn't have ever noticed when I was younger.