Little Nemo & Flash Gordon

As I unravel through the numerous pages of Little Nemo and uncover all of his wondrous adventures in his dreams I begin to realize the effect this comic has had on its successors, and also how much more experimental McKay was in comparison to other and even later comic artists.  When I read over his old tales I feel the whimsicalness of Nemo’s dreams sink into my head and I’m much more sucked into the comic, something that’s been hard to find in comics for me recently.  McKay’s sense of animation is something definitely felt in his comics, not only in his movement of the characters but in his comic but the way action is shown as well.  In a decent portion of his comics, most of it is usually scene-to-scene or action-to-action, but he keeps the fluidity between the panels going, as he doesn’t use as much type as older comic writers did.  My issue recently going back has been the longer paragraphs that seem to accompany a lot of the older comics, but as McKay uses more of the visuals to portray Nemo’s dream world I’m less caught up in reading and am more pulled in. Certain locations – like the mirror room the 3 cops are at- are simply brilliant.  Looking through his comics again is very much like discovering a gold mine for interesting concepts in movement and panel ideas.

I also read through Flash Gordon and a bit of the Conan strips, which were fun reads that definitely explained certain influences on other comics I’ve read.  Many situations Flash Gordon found his ship’s engine dying on him in I recall thinking to myself “there’s a parody of this”.  It’s just kind of funny when your first indirect exposure to a comic is through a Calvin & Hobbes bit, when Spaceman Spiff would show up. A definite homage to the sci-fi capers from the old days.