Daydreams and Nightmares: The Fantastic Visions of WInsor McCay, 1898-1934 [Paperback]

Winsor McCay (Author), Richard Marschall (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2005

Daydreams & Nightmares collects the rarest work from Little Nemo In Slumberland creator Winsor McCay's historic career. A fantasist of the first rank, McCay was a key pioneer in the histories of both comics and animation. He had a fascination with dreams that extended beyond his newspaper strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, and it was a fascination as compelling as that of Freud, Jung and Adler's, as proven in the pages of Daydreams & Nightmares. McCay's dream-inspired strips, illustrations and cartoons feature rarebit-induced nightmares, playful "what-ifs," moralistic panoramas, pictorial allegories and other fantastic visions. The highlights of the book are McCay's Dream of the Rarebit Fiend strips created for the New York Evening Telegram in 1905, as well as early efforts like A Pilgrim's Progress, Poor Jake, Day Dreams, Rabid Reveries, Little Sammy Sneeze ("He never knew when it was coming!") and more.

The artwork in this book includes outstanding examples from several categories of McCay's career: illustrations from his first paper, the Cincinnati Enquirer; anti-war and anti-materialist cartoons; playful strips for Life magazine; early dream sequences; futuristic illustrations for the New York Herald; and allegorical and editorial cartoons for the Hearst newspapers. The book spans the years 1898-1934, the bulk of McCay's career.

McCay's world was the world of playfulness and whimsy that most leave behind in youth and encounter again only in dreams; Daydreams & Nightmares is a tour through that world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Winsor McCay died in 1934, but not before leaving his mark as a pioneer and visionary of the American comic strip and animation mediums. His creations, from Little Nemo in Slumberland to Gertie the Dinosaur, have endured for a century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 2nd edition (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560975695
• ISBN-13: 978-1560975694
• Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 10.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,960,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Collection Containing McCay's Most Inspiring Art, December 27, 2005

By 

seekerotruth "seekerotruth" (Southern California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Daydreams and Nightmares: The Fantastic Visions of WInsor McCay, 1898-1934 (Paperback)

The editorial "cartoons," reprinted in this book, which are really dignified, highly elaborate philosophical/social illustrations are truly in a class by themselves. They evoke a by-gone day when human dignity was at the forefront of our social consciousness. Things have changed in this regard and not for the better. The themes of youth and old age, duty, the vice of envy, the worlds each of us live in, are all profoundly and beautifully treated in these matchless illustrations. This is one of the best books of illustration that I own.

It's a little ironic that Fantagraphics has published, and now republished the book, given that the company publishes THE COMICS JOURNAL, which often seems to me to have "a libido for the ugly," both physical and spiritual, and thus seems the polar opposite of McCay's uplifting aesthetic and moral outlook. Fantagraphics is to be applauded greatly for this one.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best place to start, August 27, 2006

By 

Christian Hartwig (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daydreams and Nightmares: The Fantastic Visions of WInsor McCay, 1898-1934 (Paperback)

What a major disappointment. I'm a huge fan of Winsor McCay, and much of the comments here seem to focus on the fact that Fantagraphics is reprinting this book. Well, great, but I wish that they would have taken some more time in writing it. This book is for people who can't get enough of McCay's marvelous work but the Little Nemo collections and John Canemaker's definitive biography would be a much better place to start.

The book is large and all the prints are in black and white (as they were originally, unfortunately no color Sunday additions). While McCay is known for his use of color, it's a welcome addition that Richard Marshall has put together a book focusing on McCay's black and white work. Unfortunately, the images are rendered little more that wallpaper since they are presented without any context. The forward, preface, and two pieces by McCay himself do next to nothing to help us understand the images on any level. The forward gives four paragraphs about his life, an interesting preface by the editor cries out against the "neglect" of McCay's contributions, yet all this book does is present them in a cold, museum-like atmosphere. If this were my first introduction to McCay I don't think it would have resonated with me much. McCay's two included essays on animating are interesting and slightly illuminating to his process but don't really seem to be pieces of the big picture onto themselves.

This book is an empty shell: When (year, point in his career) and why did McCay create these? Would we see some of these motifs recycled later? Many of his editorial accompaniments are vivid, but were those really his views or just images meant to go a long with the editorialist's ideas? What was the topic that went with them? What about the racism in some of the images? This left me with more questions than appreciations for his work.

The drawings are grouped into Early Magazine Work, which has some work, with titles added but no context or even date of publication. Some of the images are of fairly poor quality, possibly from either the printing, or being blown-up too much, or both. Next are Newspaper Fantasy Illustrations (only five but beautiful--no specific dates or context given), then Midsummer Daydreams and Other Comic Strips (Pilgrim's Progress, Poor Jake, many without headers and none with dates), the Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, Sunday Excursions (all Little Sammy Sneeze), and finally Sermons on Paper (which accompanied editorials, again, no specific dates or context given).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning collection done right, February 22, 2006

By 

Thelonious "music, philosophy and math" (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Daydreams and Nightmares: The Fantastic Visions of WInsor McCay, 1898-1934 (Paperback)

Beautiful reproductions of some great work by McCay. Lots of good stuff here, from Rarebit and the later editorial work, to other short-lived, but interesting strips - all in high-quality reproductions big enough to really appreciate. some of the editorial work is quite stunning and some of the "dream" strips are among his best.

A generous sampling of McCay's work outside Little Nemo - not to be missed for fans of his work or of early 20th century America