Cemetery of the Evergreens, Brooklyn, New York[3] 40°41′2.0″N73°54′4.3″W / 40.683889°N 73.901194°W / 40.683889; -73.901194 (Winsor McCay's resting place)
Occupations
Animator
cartoonist
Notable work
Gertie the Dinosaur
Little Nemo
Spouse
Maude Leonore Dufour
(m. 1891)
Children
2, including Bob
Signature
Zenas Winsor McCay (c. 1866–1871 – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip Little Nemo (1905–1914; 1924–1927) 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 in 1898 began illustrating newspapers and magazines. In 1903 he joined the New York Herald, 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 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 he self-financed and animated ten films, some of which survive only as fragments. The first three served in his vaudeville act; Gertie the Dinosaur was 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 did not enjoy as much commercial success 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 copious 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 the work of Fleischer Studios in the late 1920s, followed by Walt Disney's feature films in the 1930s. He pioneered inbetweening, the use of registration marks, cycling, and other animation techniques that were to become standard.
Zenas WinsorMcCay (c. 1866–1871 – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip Little Nemo (1905–1914;...
The WinsorMcCay Award is given to individuals in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation in producing, directing, animating...
fictional character created by American cartoonist WinsorMcCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, before receiving...
by American cartoonist and animator WinsorMcCay. It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur. McCay first used the film before live audiences...
Mosquito Operates is a 1912 silent animated film by American cartoonist WinsorMcCay. The six-minute short depicts a giant mosquito tormenting a sleeping...
Lusitania (1918) is an American silent animated short film by cartoonist WinsorMcCay. It is a work of propaganda re-creating the never-photographed 1915 sinking...
a newspaper comic strip by American cartoonist WinsorMcCay, begun September 10, 1904. It was McCay's second successful strip, after Little Sammy Sneeze...
names R. WinsorMcCay, WinsorMcCay Jr., and Bob McCay. He was the son of cartoonist and animator WinsorMcCay. Robert McCay was born to Winsor and Maude...
distributes the Derwent pencil sets WinsorMcCay (1869–1934), American cartoonist, originally named Zenas WinsorMcKay Winsorising, as in a Winsorized...
the Galaxy Vol. 3 – Fernando Herrera, Chris Hurtt, Nathan McConnel, Daniel Cabral, and Chris McGaw Ahsoka – Rick O'Connor, Mike Beaulieu, Stewart Alves...
most popular character Little Nemo, successful newspaper cartoonist WinsorMcCay gave much more detail to his hand-drawn animations than any animation...
Awards, three Annie Awards, one WAC Winner, one OIAF Award, and one WinsorMcCay Award, among other nominations for his works. Tartakovsky was born on...
created by Ladislas Starevich with his puppet animations since 1910 and by WinsorMcCay with detailed hand-drawn animation in films such as Little Nemo (1911)...
Little Sammy Sneeze was a comic strip by American cartoonist WinsorMcCay. In each episode the titular Sammy sneezed himself into an awkward or disastrous...
soap operas Ryan McCay (born 1986), Scottish footballer WinsorMcCay (1867 (?)–1934), American cartoonist and animator WinsorMcCay Award, given to individuals...
immediately before sleeping in order to give themselves inspiring dreams. WinsorMcCay's comic strip series Dream of the Rarebit Fiend recounts the fantastic...
Effects Reference Platform Pete Docter Evelyn Lambart (posthumously) Craig McCracken "50th ANNIE AWARDS CELEBRATION SET FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2023...
earliest woman animators. She is also one of the few women to receive a WinsorMcCay Award for lifetime achievement, one of the most prestigious awards in...
Academy Awards, for which he won one. He also posthumously received the WinsorMcCay Award at the 1978 Annie Awards and the Hall of Fame award at the 2017...
The 29th annual Annie Awards honoring animation excellence in 2001. Shrek became the big winner of 2001, taking eight of its twelve nominations, including...
4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2022. Canemaker, John (2005). WinsorMcCay: His Life and Art. Abrams Books. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8109-5941-5. Colledge...
Honor from the Japanese government in 2013. Otomo later received the WinsorMcCay Award at the 41st Annie Awards in 2014 and the 2015 Grand Prix de la...
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