Zenas Winsor McCay (c.?1867–1871 – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip Little Nemo (1905–1914; 1924–1926) and the animated film Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). For contractual reasons, he worked under the pen name Silas on the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.From a young age, McCay was a quick, prolific, and technically dextrous artist. He started his professional career making posters and performing for dime museums, and began illustrating newspapers and magazines in 1898. He joined the New York Herald in 1903, where he created popular comic strips such as Little Sammy Sneeze and Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. In 1905, his signature strip Little Nemo in Slumberland debuted, a fantasy strip in an Art Nouveau style, about a young boy and his adventurous dreams. The strip demonstrated McCay's strong graphic sense and mastery of color and linear perspective. McCay experimented with the formal elements of the comic strip page, arranging and sizing panels to increase impact and enhance elements of the narrative. McCay also produced numerous detailed editorial cartoons and was a popular performer of chalk talks on the vaudeville circuit.McCay was an early animation pioneer. Between 1911 and 1921 McCay self-financed and animated ten films, some of which survive only as fragments. The first three served as part of his vaudeville act, Gertie the Dinosaur, an interactive routine in which McCay appeared to give orders to a trained dinosaur. McCay and his assistants worked for twenty-two months on his most ambitious film, The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), a patriotic recreation of the German torpedoing in 1915 of the RMS Lusitania. Lusitania was not as commercially successful as the earlier films, and McCay's later movies attracted little attention. His animation, vaudeville, and comic strip work was gradually curtailed as newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, his employer since 1911, expected McCay to devote his energies to editorial illustrations.In his drawing, McCay made bold, prodigious use of linear perspective, particularly in detailed architecture and cityscapes. He textured his editorial cartoons with fine hatching, and made color a central element in Little Nemo. His comic strip work has influenced generations of cartoonists and illustrators. The technical level of McCay's animation—its naturalism, smoothness, and scale—was unmatched until Walt Disney's feature films arrived in the 1930s. He pioneered inbetweening, the use of registration marks, cycling, and other animation techniques that later became standard.
Animation should be an art, that is how I conceived it. But as I see what you fellows have done with it is make it into a trade - not an art, but a trade. Bad luck.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Perdu dans l'âge d'or
2012
Short character
Animation Legend: Winsor McCay
1993
La belle au bois dormant
1991
TV Movie as Winsor MacCay
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
1990
Video Game comics
Nemo
1990
Video Game comic strip
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
1989
comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland"
The Midsummer's Nightmare
1922
Short
Flip's Circus
1921
Short
The Centaurs
1921
Short
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville
1921
Short comic strip "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" / screenplay
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet
1921
Short comic strip "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" / screenplay
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House
1921
Short comic strip "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" / screenplay
The Sinking of the Lusitania
1918
Short writer
Gertie the Dinosaur
1914
Short
How a Mosquito Operates
1912
Short comic strip "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" / screenplay
Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics
1911
Short comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland" / screenplay
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
1906
Short comic strip
Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Flying House
2011
Short
Los comienzos de la animación
1995
Video documentary segments "The Sinking of the Lusitania", "Gertie the Dinosaur"
Animation Legend: Winsor McCay
1993
The Midsummer's Nightmare
1922
Short
Flip's Circus
1921
Short
Gertie on Tour
1921
Short
The Centaurs
1921
Short
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville
1921
Short
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet
1921
Short
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House
1921
Short
The Sinking of the Lusitania
1918
Short
Gertie the Dinosaur
1914
Short
How a Mosquito Operates
1912
Short
Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics
1911
Short
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Midsummer's Nightmare
1922
Short producer
Flip's Circus
1921
Short producer
Gertie on Tour
1921
Short producer
The Centaurs
1921
Short producer
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville
1921
Short producer
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet
1921
Short producer
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House
1921
Short producer
The Sinking of the Lusitania
1918
Short producer
Gertie the Dinosaur
1914
Short producer
How a Mosquito Operates
1912
Short producer
Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics
1911
Short producer
Animation Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Welcome to the Basement
2016
TV Series animator - 1 episode
Flip's Circus
1921
Short animator
The Centaurs
1921
Short animator
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Bug Vaudeville
1921
Short animator
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet
1921
Short animator
Crashing Through to Berlin
1918
Documentary animator
The Sinking of the Lusitania
1918
Short animator
Gertie the Dinosaur
1914
Short animator
How a Mosquito Operates
1912
Short animator
Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics
1911
Short animator
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gertie the Dinosaur
1914
Short
Winsor McCay
Art Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Adventures Into Digital Comics
2006
Documentary art contributor
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Bird of Steel!
special thanks filming
The Winsor McCay Resurrection Project
2011
Short special thanks
The Face of Joe the Killer
2005
Video special thanks
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Great White Way
1924
Himself (as Winsor McKay)
Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics
1911
Short
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Welcome to the Basement
2016
TV Series
Himself
Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of the Looney Tunes