Customer Reviews

Little Sammy Sneeze

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At first glance, Winsor McCay's "Little Sammy Sneeze" comes across as the most unappealing of comic strips: all about a dull-looking, homely boy whose sole sign of life is to cock his head back and deliver a sneeze of monstrous proportions. This went on as a regular feature for about two years. And the most peculiar thing about it: it's frequently hilarious.

Though Sammy is the regular, titular star of the strip, he's merely the deux ex machina that shakes up a tableaux of dull, self-satisfied adult society. A pair of ancients take-up a chit-chat flirtation at a recital; Sammy sneezes their hairpieces away. Two childish men try to sneak a highball while their wives aren't watching; Sammy blows their cover. Ancient grandpa delivers an endless table grace at Thanksgiving; Sammy sends a tidal wave of gravy into his beard. And so it goes. We don't laugh at Sammy's sneezes so much as we do at the havoc they create, blowing away pretense or disrupting insipid chit-chat. Even Sammy doesn't appear too bothered being kicked or pushed out of the final frame.

Sunday Press has given these long-neglected strips (or at least the first year's worth) the loving care they deserve, reprinted full-size in their original colors, with the original obverse strips on the flip side: strips by John Pretiss Benson, Gustave Verbeek, and best of all, another Winsor McCay strip, "Hungry Henrietta," one episode of which crosses-over into Sammy's world, with funny and unappetizing results.

Oddly enough, Sammy's progress paralleled that of his contemporary, Outcault's "Buster Brown," who played havoc with high society till he was sent to cool his heels out on the farm. This volume ends during Sammy's own bucolic sojourn. He would return to the city, and soon be pushed aside by another McCay creation, the unparalleled "Little Nemo in Slumberland." But as an introduction to McCay's sly humor and incredible visuals, "Little Sammy Sneeze" is a blast.