Little Nemo

I really can't say I enjoyed Little Nemo. I delved into little Nemo in Slumberland. I found some aspects of the comic interesting, but in the end, the lack of plot, coherency, or solid narrative really frustrated me. On a superficial (yet, important level), the way McCay wrote the text made it hard to read the comics at a decent pace. I had to spent an undue amount of time analyzing McCays writing, instead of just breezing through the text. While the extra time It took to read through the comics as a result was bearable, the distraction from the comic and the imagery was less forgivable. To me the most important aspect of the novel was the psychedelic imagery. Because of this fact, I found the distracting text very harmful to the my enjoyment of the comic.On a lighter note though, the comic presented some some images. I'm sure that particularly in it heyday the comic wowed reader with its imaginative environments, weird variety of characters, and outlandish creatures. In our day however, we have movies like Avatar that can present us unbelievable creatures in such a manner that the mystical seams almost mundane. Because of this, I was less enthusiastic about Nemo in Slumberland than readers of McCay's era must have been. The differences between comics of the present day and the pioneering comics become apparent McCays work. Not to bash on the artist, however, for at his time his work was marvelous, and without him many forms of art may not be the same today. I did however, notice many techniques that had no been innovated yet that might have made his work more engaging. Almost all of McCay's compositions were very straight on; he rarely allowed the readers an angled camera view, and usually keep the camera the same distance away from the focus. Many modern comics have gone the opposite direction; we see extreme camera angles and close ups. Such compositions are employed to heighten drama. I really realize this in McCay's work; it isn't until I am deprived of interesting compositions that I really realize how necessary they are to keep a viewers attention. As I was reading through Slumberland I could clearly see a gap in time in McCay's work; it took me a while before I figured out what was really bugging me was lackluster composition.