Winsor McCay - Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice
Reading Little Nemo was kind of nostalgic for me since I grew up reading it. I'm used to how broken up the comic; a series of small, almost mini-series as apposed to one long continuous story. I've always loved how each comic begins with him waking up from sleep, especially since I would always read them right before bed and wish that I would wake up for an adventure in the middle of the night. My parents loved it since it made me eager to go to sleep.
The actual art of the comic isn't all that detailed, but I prefer it that way as opposed to being too complicated. I've never cared so much for the characters since there isn't a lot to them. I always loved the adventure/experience as a whole instead.
I have the film too that's loosely based on the comics, but the art and style is pretty different. It really feels a lot like a Hayao Miyazaki film to me in ways, but I don't think that he would be interested in a film that's completely in a dream. Doesn't seem his style in that way. Either way though, seems like an anime film, which means it was probably one of the first ones released in the US. It's not a great film by any means, especially story-wise, but it has some fun characters and pretty visuals.
I think somewhere I also heard that Brad Bird has worked on animating this movie for a bit, but didn't stay on for the whole production. Love him dearly.
Bill Waterson - The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book
Another comic that I grew up reading was Calvin & Hobbes, and I still have all the books somewhere. My dad and I would sit and read them when we didn't have anything else to do. I like them more and more as I get older, which isn't something that normally happens to me. My dad says that I was a lot like Calvin when I was little; always getting caught doing something I shouldn't and making the craziest excuses, and I also had a stuffed camel named Humphrey that I talked to and carried everywhere.
I found this AWESOME parody of Calvin & Hobbes called (the) Joker & Lex (Luther) by Brian Azzerello and Lee Bermejo. Win for DC Comics.
Film
Lotte Reininger - The Adventures of Prince Achmed
I remember watching this with a couple of my friends my Freshman year here.I always found it interesting how this film was made over a decade before Disney's Snow White, and yet that film is considered the first full feature animated film. Prince Achmed is apparently the oldest, but maybe it isn't considered the first because it's German and not American?
