…and this is a 
I was catching up on Narbonic this morning, and she linked to an animated Little Nemo cartoon by Winsor McCay — from 1911. I was impressed. We all need a little hundred-year-old psychedelia to start the morning.
McCay was a pioneer of animation — you might also enjoy the famous Gertie the Dinosaur, or even the rather jingoistic Sinking of the Lusitania. They're all a bit quaint and slow-moving by modern standards, but then again, you have to appreciate that each frame was hand drawn and hand colored by McCay himself — it took him a year to make a 5-minute cartoon.
Comments
Posted by: daveau
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June 6, 2010 8:05 AM
I've seen Gertie before, but not his little gem. Just the thing for this morning.
They're all a bit quaint and slow-moving by modern standards, but then again, you have to appreciate that each frame was hand drawn and hand colored by McCay himself — it took him a year to make a 5-minute cartoon.
And I bet he had to walk 20 miles in the snow to get to the studio. Up hill. Both ways.
Posted by: daveau
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June 6, 2010 8:07 AM
Blockkquote fail. Or, possibly, my own fault. Happy D-day, everyone.
Posted by: triskelethecat
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June 6, 2010 8:24 AM
I always loved Little Nemo (came across him as a comic strip originally back in college when my freshman English term paper was on the history of comic strips). Gertie is always a joy to watch again. Hadn't seen the Lusitania one. Thanks for spotlighting it, PZ.
Posted by: Franklin Percival
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June 6, 2010 8:31 AM
Staggering, when you consider it. What might he have achieved with an Apple?
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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June 6, 2010 9:08 AM
Check out the fish at 3:10 in the Lusitania clip--wow.
Posted by: DLC
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June 6, 2010 9:12 AM
whoah. cool stuff.
Reminds me of an 80s era animation I saw on cable, which my memory tells me was a German production called Antibiblica, but IMDB doesn't know what I'm talking about. It was all line-art-like with weird transitions, but amusing to watch.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM
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June 6, 2010 9:12 AM
The Lusitania cartoon was obviously propaganda.
Posted by: recovering catholic
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June 6, 2010 9:57 AM
PZ, this was charming. But I'm thinking again, for the hundredth time, that you must have 48-hour days to get done everything that you do.
Posted by: Andrew T
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June 6, 2010 10:03 AM
What a product of modern culture I am...I was expecting to see a cartoon about an orange clown fish. :)
I know I've seen the cigarette-smoking clown somewhere before...maybe when I was runnin' down a dream.
Posted by: Recovered Catholic
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June 6, 2010 10:48 AM
Thanks for that gem this dreaming morning. Since the days of my brother dragging me to the University to see avant-garde film festivals, I've been a fan of McCay. He has great line work and ability to show volumes in motion with "weightyness".
Off topic but for more eye-candy be sure to check out National Film Board of Canada's awesome collection of animation and film. For this site I just have to include this link to "The Bead Game" (1977) by Ishu Patel.
Posted by: Recovered Catholic
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June 6, 2010 10:50 AM
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVQle8IIj88
Posted by: Audley Z. Darkheart OM, purveyor of candy and lies
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June 6, 2010 11:01 AM
Beautiful, but I kind of feel like someone spiked my coffee.
Posted by: Orac
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June 6, 2010 11:07 AM
Here are a couple of other cool ones. First, how Winsor McCay made the cartoon above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcSp2ej2S00
And here how a mosquito operates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvzAJouHh7k
Posted by: Tulse
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June 6, 2010 11:26 AM
I'm amazed at how surreal the early cartoons were -- McCay, Tex Avery, Betty Boop...all of them really played with the limitless visual potential of the medium. We don't seem to have any mainstream animation that does that any more, as it all seems much less stylized and grounded in reality far more.
Posted by: Rachel Bronwyn
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June 6, 2010 12:00 PM
One has to appreciate the depiction of the cannibal child. Wholesome old school racism, right there.
Why is racism so cute when it's not being intentionally cruel?
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
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June 6, 2010 1:19 PM
That was the weirdest episode of Sailor Moon I've ever seen. Er, not that I've ever watched...uh, gotta go!
Posted by: Friend of Icelos
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June 6, 2010 1:25 PM
The real value of the original comic strip is definitely the artwork. Here are few classics:
1908-07-26
1908-10-18
1909-03-21
Yeah, a lot of them are full of good-old-fashioned racism, and not just against blacks, but also Native Americans, Chinese, and more. It seems somehow better, though, if I imagine they're just the dreams of a young bigot...
Posted by: Friend of Icelos
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June 6, 2010 1:33 PM
Oh, and this one is from a series that seems particularly appropriate for this blog:
1909-08-15
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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June 6, 2010 2:45 PM
thanx for those linx, FoI
Posted by: Rutee, Shrieking Harpy of Dooooom
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June 6, 2010 7:09 PM
Why am I not surprised that PZ MEyers is actually DZ Meyers?
Posted by: moonkitty
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June 6, 2010 10:29 PM
McCay and George Herriman. The two greatest--and most psychedelic--cartoonists America has produced.
http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display.php?id=9
Posted by: antie.diaphanus
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June 7, 2010 8:11 AM
You really should watch Sailor Moon -- the original Japanese version.
Posted by: monado
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June 7, 2010 10:27 PM
Weird; nice, but weird. If you liked that, look for an animation called Strange People. I don't know who the animator is.