Winsor McCay Early Works

More “Tales of the Rarebit Fiend” (1907 strips), “Little Sammy Sneeze,” “A Pilgrim’s Progress” (1907 strips), and dozens of McCay’s editorial illustrations from his New York period. Winsor McCay: Early Works, Volume 6 will feature a selection of McCay’s first continuous comic strip, Mr. Goodenough, which ran from January 1904 to March 1905 in the Evening Telegram. The six-panel strip features a millionaire (Mr. Goodenough) who continuously tries to improve his life by becoming more active, the result of which inevitably leads to injury or discomfort for the hapless gentleman. In the last panel of every strip, the reader finds that Mr. Goodenough has once again resigned himself to living in sumptuous lethargy. This marks McCay’s first foray into a working formula that he would use again and again; since the last panel is the same every time, the buildup becomes the most important part. McCay used this formula for plot cohesiveness within many of his strips – Little Sammy Sneeze, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, and Little Nemo in Slumberland all featured last-panel repetition. Volume 6 also includes Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, A Pilgrim’s Progress, and a selection of New York American editorial cartoons.