While this image by Zenas Winsor McCay is a hard hitting editorial cartoon, he was much better known at the time as a prolific artist and pioneer in the art of animation. His best-known animation creations are the newspaper comic strip "Little Nemo," which ran from 1905 to 1911; and the animated cartoon "Gertie the Dinosaur," which he created in 1914.

McCay, before there was a Walt Disney, created a number of animated short films, in which every single frame of each cartoon (with each film requiring thousands of frames) was hand-drawn by McCay himself. His animated film, "Gertie the Dinosaur" is classified by film and animation historians as the first cartoon character created especially for film to display a unique, realistic personality.

While McCay did not invent the animated cartoon, he was the first to shape the way that such films would be made, and is to all intents and purposes, the father of animation. His techniques included; using pacing, exacting editing, a variety of shots, angles, and the inclusion of a plot, were all unheard of in 1911.

After the creation of his "Little Nemo" comic strip, the form gained popularity as a result of the rivalry between influential newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, both of whom realized they could sell more newspapers if they had more cartoons.

In 1911, as a result of a management dispute with The Herald, McCay moved over to the Hearst paper, "The American," Unfortunately, he discovered that he enjoyed even less creative freedom than before. Hearst was looking for an artist who would just do what he was told, and this at a time when McCay wanted to spend more time on his film career. Hearst was upset that McCay wasn't paying as much attention to the comic strips and relegated him to drawing one-off editorial illustrations. McCay went on to produce such titles as "Nemo," "How a Mosquito Operates" "Gertie the Dinosaur" and a propaganda film, "The Sinking of the Lusitania" as well as many others. He achieved movement, pacing, editing techniques, and gave a fluidity to the characters that is still amazing, and all with incredible detail.

In 1924 he was able to leave Hearst and he returned to the Herald Tribune where he tried to revive his first comic strip, "Little Nemo" but it was unsuccessful. Winsor McCay spent his last eight years of his life at the American, producing editorial cartoons.

Medium : 1 print : wood engraving

Created/Published : May 3, 1917, New York American

Creator : Winsor McCay, artist, 1871 - 1934

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

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Product #: cph3b36807