Winsor McCay, an early comic artist and animator is being honored with a Google Doodle today to celebrate the 107th anniversary of his well-known “Little Nemo in Slumberland” comic.
The Doodle, which is called “Little Nemo in Google Land,” follows Nemo as his dreams take him into a magical land of search engines. A user can click on a hanging piece of ribbon to reveal a new frame of the character’s adventures through Google Land. The Google Doodle consists of five levels of the animation and ends in a search for the artist.
According to Wikipedia, the original comic was published in the New York Herald and William Randolf Hearst‘s New York American. The Los Angeles Times has more about how McCay’s career: “He was a pioneer in the field of animation — a passion reportedly spurred when his son introduced him to a flipbook. A light bulb went on for McCay, who saw the possibilities in motion through sequential drawings. McCay created the ‘Little Nemo’ film in 1911, followed by ‘The Story of a Mosquito’ — a comic tale of a mosquito’s encounter with a drunk.”