I believe it is safe to say that none of us are old enough to remember the initial publication of Winsor McCay’s masterpiece of sequential art, the classic comic strip known as Little Nemo In Slumberland. However, for those of us lucky enough to have ever seen the stunning artwork McCay produced in his series of weekly comic strips from 1905-1927 (with some years of absence), you know his work is something to be celebrated. His art style, incredible paneling, and amazing use of the medium is still widely respected and see attempts at replication to this very day. Winsor McCay (September 26, 1869 – July 26, 1934) was an artistic genius and grandfather of the American comic strip, so it is great to see Google honoring the man and his most famed worked today, 107 years after the first publication of Little Nemo. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you go to Google and view the animated Google homage to Little Nemo, which features Little Nemo and Princess Camille falling through some classic moments from the strip. Particularly, the Google version nods to the earlier strips in the series, such as the classic 1908 strip (published on July 26th and picture on the right) where Nemo wakes up in his bed next to Flip and their bed begins walking through the city with long rubber legs (very Mr. Fantastic, far before Reed Richards was hit by any cosmic rays). As with every Little Nemo strip, the animated Google version ends with young Nemo waking up in the comfort of his own bed (or nearby it). Younger readers might also be familiar with the 1989 Japanese animated film based on the comic strip, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, directed by Masami Hata and William T. Hurtz, with story provided in part by Jean ‘Mœbius’ Geiraud. However, as fun as that film was, it was nothing in comparison to McCay’s intricately drawn pieces. For those curious to read of Little Nemo and his adventures in Slumberland, the strips have been reprinted in the USA by both Checker Books (now defunct) and Fantagraphics, though Comic Strip Library does a great job collecting most of the strips in a free, high quality format. So find time this week to check out the always brilliant Little Nemo comic strips, and of course, view the beautiful Google homage today. If you’re late to the game or don’t want to click away from our site, we have the non-animated version for you below: