Little Nemo and Peanuts

Little Nemo was a strange read. I mean, it really could be seen as the origins of American comics, and for that, it stands out as a true achievement. A fair number of standards and portions of uniqueness make this comic great in some ways. However, being used to modern day comics, Little Nemo was a slow read. The repetitive nature of the first 30 comics, ending in the same manner before he finally gets to meet the Princess was... arduous. Granted, after he meets her, his troubles hardly end there. There is plot, but little progression.

I found it entertaining, and kept reading, but the long it went on the less interesting it became. I barely made it through the first year, much less the next 7. McCay was brilliant and there are few that would argue against that... well, brilliant in the way of art. I'm not sure what else to mention about Little Nemo...

Peanuts I have to say is one of my favorite comics. Schultz was also a brilliant man. His characters all seem to remind of somehow of someone we know. His characters have such live, and vibrancy. Here's a comic with plenty of life, and no plot. The comic is all about what is going on and how things progress, but it purposely doesn't have a destination in mind. This gives it a further true to life feeling... all the while, Snoopy brings us out of it. He gives the much needed third person perspective on it that gives it its whimsical feeling.

Reading the interview with Schultz was both entertaining and confusing. He seems like a very intense man, very passionate about his work, and yet... he didn't think much of his work. He could have cared less. He chided the interviewer for making caricatures of his classmates, and always seemed to downplay the role of art in his comics. It makes me wonder if that was because the view of comics as a lesser art in those days. It seems that perhaps the view of the world on the thing he did for a living made him think less of it himself.