Editing Little Nemo (section)

==Publication history==
''Little Nemo in Slumberland'' debuted on the last page of the Sunday comics section of ''[[The New York Herald]]'' newspaper, on October 15, 1905. The full-page, color comic strip ran until July 23, 1911.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=97}} In spring 1911, McCay moved to [[William Randolph Hearst|William Randolph Hearst's]] ''[[New York Journal-American|New York American]]'' and took ''Little Nemo''{{'}}s characters with him. The ''Herald'' held the strip's copyright,{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=164}} but McCay won a lawsuit that allowed him to continue using the characters.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=168}} In the ''American'', the strip ran under the title ''In the Land of Wonderful Dreams''. The ''Herald'' was unsuccessful in finding another cartoonist to continue the original strip.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=164}}

McCay left Hearst in May 1924{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=228}} and returned to the ''Herald Tribune''. He began ''Little Nemo in Slumberland'' afresh on August 3 of that year.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=229}} The new strip displayed the [[virtuoso]] technique of the old, but the panels were laid out in an unvarying grid. Nemo took a more passive role in the stories,{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=226}} and there was no continuity.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=235}} The strip came to an end in January 1927,{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=229}} as it was not popular with readers. Hearst executives had been trying to convince McCay to return to the ''American'', and they succeeded in 1927.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=235}} Due to the lack of the 1920s Nemo's success, the ''Herald Tribune'' signed over all copyrights to the strip to McCay for one dollar.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=237}}

In 1937, McCay's son Robert attempted to carry on his father's legacy by reviving ''Little Nemo''. [[Comic book packager]] [[Harry "A" Chesler]]'s syndicate announced a Sunday and daily ''Nemo'' strip, credited to "Winsor McCay, Jr." Robert also drew a comic-book version for Chesler called ''Nemo in Adventureland'' featuring grown-up versions of Nemo and the Princess. Neither project lasted long.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=253}} Production continued on both after the syndicate was closed in 1938, being utilized in various comic books including Cocomalt Comics and [[Blue Ribbon Comics|Blue Ribbon]], published by MLJ Publications (later [[Archie Publications]]). Chesler closed his shop (the first of several times) around 1940. [[Street & Smith]] ran Little Nemo in 1942 in ''[[Shadow Comics]]''. In 1945, McCay was again with Chesler’s shop, producing Little Nemo in Adventureland for Red Seal and Punch Comics until 1947, when the shop closed down for the final time.<ref name="ww.lambiek.net">[http://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mccay_bob.htm Bob McCay] at the [[Lambiek Comiclopedia]]</ref>

In 1947, Robert and fabric salesman Irving Mendelsohn organized the McCay Feature Syndicate, Inc. to revive the original ''Nemo'' strip from McCay's original art, modified to fit the size of modern newspaper pages. This revival also did not last.{{sfnm|1a1=Waugh|1y=1947|1pp=20–21|2a1=Canemaker|2y=2005|2p=253}}  The McCay-Richardson Syndicate distributed this version from approximately March to December 1947.

In 1966, cartoonist [[Woody Gelman]] discovered the original artwork for many ''Little Nemo'' strips at a cartoon studio where McCay's son Bob had worked. In 1973, Gelman published a collection of ''Little Nemo'' strips in Italy.{{sfn|Jamieson|2010|p=126}} His collection of McCay originals is preserved at the [[Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum]] at [[Ohio State University]].{{sfn|Spencer|2005}}

In 2005, collector Peter Maresca self-published a {{convert|21|xx|16|in|cm|adj=on}} volume of ''Nemo'' Sundays as ''Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays!'' via his [[Sunday Press Books]]. The volume was large enough to reproduce the pages at their original size, as they appeared in newspapers. Restoration work took Maresca between five and twenty hours per page.{{sfn|Boxer|2005}} A second volume, ''Little Nemo in Slumberland: Many More Splendid Sundays!'', appeared in 2008.{{sfn|Doctorow|2008}}