Being an interesting, Little Nemo-free collection of celebrated cartoonist McCay, though the front matter claims that he was under-appreciated at the time this came out. Although there is a brief look at his political cartoons herein, as well as some desultory comic strips (some only one-shots, at least here), the two most successful parts of the book are his "other" major strip, Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend and the spectacular illustrations, futuristic and abstract, for the "Sermons on Paper" newspaper series, which do a marvelous job of personifying human follies and emotions, as well as at times depicting a rather fearful, mechanistic future. Although the whimsy of McCay's humorous strips has worn fairly well a century on, these illustrations still speak very directly to the human condition. ( )

A nicely organized and reproduced collection of Winsor McCay's non-"Little Nemo" work from 1898 to 1934, including essays by McCay and other authorities on the comic strip, early magazine work, newspaper fantasy illustrations, "A Pilgrim's Progress", "Day Dreams", "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend". "Little Sammy Sneeze", and editorial cartoons. McCay was highly regarded by his peers and current authorities, but his panels and dialogue boxes have always been too cluttered for my tastes, detracting from the lovely artwork. ( )