McCay, Winsor

Winsor McCay (1867-1934) was a cartoonist, animator, and performer credited with significant influence in the development of American comic strips and motion picture animation. McCay first gained attention with two comic strips, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, which was first published in the New York Evening Telegram from 1904, and Little Nemo in Slumberland, published in the New York Herald from 1905 to 1915. These two strips both presented a dream state illustrated with fantasy art.

In 1906 McCay began performing in vaudeville shows as a "lightning sketcher", creating blackboard and chalk sketches of his comic strip characters and other creations. He quickly gained popularity as a performer and travelled with various vaudeville shows around the Northeast. In 1911 McCay began introducing animated films into his vaudeville act, beginning with Little Nemo and in the following year, How a Mosquito Operates . In 1914 McCay introduced Gertie the Dinosaur, which would become his most well known animated work. It is widely considered the preeminent animated work before the development of the Disney studio.

...