Little Nemo in Slumberland: Climbing the Great North Pole 1907

Winsor McCay made this Little Nemo in Slumberland comic strip using ink on paper. McCay's highly imaginative comic strip, which ran in newspapers in the early 20th century, was a pioneering work in the field of visual storytelling. The series revolved around the surreal adventures of a young boy named Nemo in a dreamland called Slumberland. This particular strip, “Climbing the Great North Pole,” takes the boy and his companions on a journey to the North Pole. Through its visual codes, it reflects the fascination of early 20th-century America with exploration and adventure, fuelled by reports from arctic expeditions. The comic's dreamlike qualities also speak to the growing interest in psychology. Studying these early comic strips gives you a great insight into the evolving cultural landscape and the ways in which popular media shapes our collective imagination. Understanding it requires resources such as newspaper archives, biographical accounts of McCay, and historical studies of popular culture in the United States.