Every now and then, I take some time and troll through Amazon to get an idea of what’s coming up. Sometimes I even do write-ups about it, although not often anymore. However, there’s one new book that has popped up on Amazon that is too exciting not to talk about.
Taschen, a German publishing company, is apparently getting set to re-release a new version of Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo” in a brand new complete edition in one single volume, covering the strips original run from 1905 to 1914 and apparently the strip’s revival from 1924 to 1926 (although listed on Amazon as 1927, which I suppose makes sense given that the strip ended in late December ’26). This will assumedly supplant the last (and out of print) “complete” edition that only contained all of the original “Nemo” strips, also previously published by Taschen and Evergreen.
While the latter revival had been printed by Fantagraphics, this is particularly exciting due to having all of “Nemo” now available in one complete collection due to “Nemo” moving into the realm of public domain. The original strips had already seen their 70+ year copyright limitation passing, but the latter had still been under copyright. Now that this has been lifted or otherwise changed (I’m not particularly sure and can’t find any public statements on this — though I’d expect one soon), Taschen being able to put out one single complete volume of the entire strip is a rather entertaining prospect.
The book has not technically been announced nor has Taschen made any comments that I can find about the release, but never the less this is hopefully a positive development in getting McCay’s classic and surreal strip out there to more people. It’s sort of sad to see how little McCay’s work gets in terms of recognition, particularly because of how much “Nemo” is essentially pure joy incarnate and should be hailed alongside works like “The Spirit” and “the Adventures of Tintin” as an innovation in storytelling. While I have the previous Evergreen/Taschen collection, I can emphatically recommend that if you do not currently own any variation of “Little Nemo” in your home, you should actively seek to remedy this — and this new pre-order that’s gone up on Amazon is certainly a good way to do that.
And if you somehow know nothing about “Little Nemo,” may I interest you in this Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland film adaptation, featuring the work of one Jean Giraud aka Moebius?
