From an early age, Zenas Winsor McCay had a passion for drawing anything and everything. It became an obsession for him, and through what he called “memory sketching” he was able to draw accurately from memory things he had never before drawn. He got his start selling portraits at the Wonderland and Eden Musee dime museum for 25¢ apiece, before being taught privately by drawing professor John Goodison.
McCay spent nine years making posters and other advertisements for various dime museums and family theaters. He later worked full-time for the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, freelanced for the humor magazine Life, and drew an ongoing proto-comic called A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle for The Cincinnati Enquirer. McCay went on to do 43 different stories for the strip between January and November of 1903. These tales were based on poems by Cincinnati Enquirer editor George Randolph Chester. In each Sunday page, an animal’s anatomy was explained in stories involving three mischievous and somewhat cruel Jungle Imps and their pestering of various animals.
In 1904, McCay debuted his first continuing comic strip, Mr. Goodenough, in the Evening Telegram. He followed this with his first color strip, Phurious Phinish of Phoolish Philipe’s Phunny Phrolics. The following year, McCay premiered his masterpiece, Little Nemo in Slumberland. The strip revolved around the fabulous dreams of Little Nemo, each of which were interrupted each week with his awakening in the final panel. Little Nemo was later adapted into a stage play starring Gabriel Weigel as Nemo, alongside Joseph Cawthorn and Billy B. Van. McCay brought Little Nemo to life once more using four thousand drawings on rice paper to create his first animated short based on the comic strip.
Throughout his career, McCay was praised for his use of color, timing, pacing, and use of linear perspective. He was also admired for pioneering inbetweening, the use of registration marks and cycling, and various other animation techniques. To this day, many of his pieces remain highly coveted by collectors. Fortunately, two pieces of original art by McCay are among the focal highlights in Hake’s Auction #229.
The first is original art from the Tales Of The Jungle Imps By Felix Fiddle story “Why The Parrot Learned To Talk” from 1903. The Sunday page deals with a group of Imps antagonizing a sleeping trio of prehistoric cavemen. The Imps look on from bushes as club-toting men discuss eating whale and elephant for breakfast, before attempting to attack the men, only to be caught. All the while, parrots look on and in last panel imitate what they have heard, with Felix Fiddle overseeing each panel. This example is 1 of only 11 Imps pages by McCay in known existence.
Another McCay lot is the Little Nemo linen-mounted cartoon poster from 1911. Printed in France and signed by popular French poster artist R. Hem, the poster was created to promote the 1911 short Little Nemo. The top of the poster has Flip and Imp holding a French title banner which roughly translates to “Winsor McCay – The Latest In Cartoons.” There are a series of drawings underneath this, featuring alligator, Flip and Nemo drawing Imp. McCay himself is shown seated at his desk, surrounded by stacks of animation drawings with a portrait of Flip in his hands.
Bidding on these exceptional pieces, as well as over 2,000 other lots being offered, closes on March 11-12, 2020. Head over to hakes.com to get started today.