Broken Frontier

Checker Publishing continues its foray into specialized publications with the ninth volume reprinting the early works of Winsor McCay.

This volume is unlike the Saturdays edition in the sense that much of the work reprinted here leans heavily towards Winsor McCay’s political illustrations. To be fair though, there is still a fair amount of strips of the Rarebit Fiend (in color) taking up the fist half of the volume, but once you get past that things really start to simmer.

Now I love Dream of the Rarebit Fiend and I think it’s a surreal strip, but McCay didn’t rest on his laurels there. He was also an accomplished illustrator whose New York editorial cartoons cut deep into the heart of the American psyche. A good example of that can be seen in such illustrations focusing on prohibition, commerce and industry. McCay was gifted enough to mix his personal touch of dry wit and protean imagination together in an effort to satirize American culture, and it’s great to see how far his intellect extended beyond the comic strip.

This edition also provides a glimpse into McCay’s production cells for Gertie the Dinosaur, and again it’s interesting to see how the artist adapts to crafting a simple animation. In many ways the showcasing of that said work proves the versatility of McCay’s abilities as an artist, and I found it to be a nice break in between the Rarebit Fiend strips and his political illustrations. If anything, the inclusion of the cells provides readers with enough insight into the type of artistic output McCay was noted for throughout the decades of the 1920’s.

I would be remiss though if I didn’t take a moment to touch upon the color strips of the Rarebit Fiend reprinted here. Chapter Three is devoted entirely to this strip and in many ways much of these strips are a real treat to wade through. One of my personal favorites details a man being flipped around in a frying pan like he was a flapjack, and another strip showed how bizarre a relationship can go when a fella admits to not understanding his sweetheart and in doing so she quickly breaks apart into a zillion pieces right before his eyes. Now that’s as surreal as McCay gets, and it’s this playful imagination that proves the artist’s brilliance as a bona fide creator.

I enjoyed the efforts put forth by Checker Publishing and it’s great to find a specialty publisher dipping back into the past like this. Winsor McCay deserves as many volumes devoted to bringing his work into the spotlight for modern audiences to enjoy, and we’re now nine volumes in and counting. If you want to marvel at the brilliancy of McCay’s artistic output then I suggest picking thus up; it’s worth every penny of your hard earned money.