Checker's McCay Collection Goes to 11

Posted: Saturday, January 17, 2004
Posted By: Tim O'Shea

Press Release

Checker Book Publishing Group has announced that its comprehensive compilation of rare and previously uncollected works of cartooning and animation pioneer Winsor McCay will comprise 11 volumes. The first volume was published last Fall, and the second will arrive soon.

With invaluable assistance from the New York and Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Public Libraries and a variety of other archives, Checker has been able to obtain a wealth of reproduceable source material spanning McCay's early career as an illustrator (through 1914), the lion's share of which has never been reprinted before. McCay worked as a strip and editorial cartoonist and spot illustrator for the Cincinnati Enquirer through 1904, when he relocated to New York to ply his trade for the New York Herald and the New York Evening Telegram. His 1905 creation, Little Nemo in Slumberland, was a work of unparalleled genius and also a huge commercial succes, which brough him to the attention of W.R. Hearst. Hearst convinced McCay to jump to his New York American where McCay continued to produce strip cartoons until 1914. Thereafter, save for a brief revival of Nemo in 1925-26, McCay would produce only editorial cartoons until his death in 1934.

Checker's goal is to gather in one series all of McCay's work other than Little Nemo, which has seen widespread reprint publication, most recently by Fantagraphics Books. Besides the first-time-ever complete reprintings of better know fixtures in the McCay canon like Hungry Henrietta, Little Sammy Sneeze and A Pilgrim's Progress, Checker is gathering short-lived rarities from his earliest days as a newspaper illustator at the Cincinnati Enquirer, and briefer Herald/Telegram/American experiments like Phoolish Phillip, Sister's Little Sister's Beau, Poor Jake, Mr. Goodenough and several others. Also to be published in future Checker volumes will be sundry examples of McCay's advertising and spot illustration, animation drawings, and architectural renderings.

April will see publication of Winsor McCay: Early Works III (ISBN 0-9741664-9-9, $19.95, 200 pp. B&W tpb). This will contain all McCay's 1907 Dream of the Rarebit Fiend strips from the New York Evening Telegram, as well as that year's A Pilgrim's Progress strips from the New York Herald. A wide variety of his spot illustration and editorial cartoons for these New York papers will round out the collection. Early Works IV and V will follow in Fall 2004, with the series to be completed by late 2006.

Here's a Volume breakdown:

Early Works I (already published)
Tales of the Jungle Imps, all strips (1903-04)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1905
Little Sammy Sneeze, various
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1905

Early Works II (already published)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1906
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1906
Cincinnati Enquirer Baseball Illos, 1903-04
Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial and Spot Illos, 1903-04

Early Works III (April 2004)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1907
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1907
New York American editorial cartoons, various

Early Works IV (Fall 2004)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1908 early
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1908 early
Little Sammy Sneeze, various
New York American editorial cartoons, various

Early Works V (Fall 2004)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1908 late
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1908 late
Phoolish Phillip, all strips
Hungry Henrietta, all strips
New York American editorial cartoons, various

Early Works VI (tba)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1909
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1909
Sister’s Little Sister’s Beau, all strips

Early Works VII (tba)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1910
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1910
Poor Jake, all strips

Early Works VIII (tba)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1911
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1911
Nobody Cares for Father, all strips

Early Works IX (tba)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1912
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1912
Mr. Goodenough, all strips

Early Works X (tba)
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, 1913
A Pilgrim’s Progress, 1913
Dear Dad and his Daughter, all strips

Early Works XI (tba)
Midsummer’s Daydreams, all strips
The Man from Montclair, all strips
Mr. Bosh, all strips
It’s Nice To Be Married, all strips
Ads, architecture, animation

Checker Book Publishing Group was established in 2000, and is located in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg, Ohio.

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