Editing Little Nemo (section)

==Style==
McCay experimented with the form of the comics page, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, perspective, and architectural and other detail.{{sfn|Harvey|1994|p=21}} From the second installment, McCay had the panel sizes and layouts conform to the action in the strip: as a forest of mushrooms grew, so did the panels, and the panels shrank as the mushrooms collapsed on Nemo. In an early Thanksgiving episode, the focal action of a giant turkey gobbling Nemo's house receives an enormous circular panel in the center of the page.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=107}} McCay also accommodated a sense of proportion with panel size and shape, showing elephants and dragons at a scale the reader could feel in proportion to the regular characters.{{sfn|Harvey|1994|p=21}} McCay controlled narrative pacing through variation or repetition, as with equally-sized panels whose repeated layouts and minute differences in movement conveyed a feeling of buildup to some climactic action.{{sfn|Harvey|1994|p=21}}

[[File:Little Nemo 1905-11-26 middle five panels.jpg|center|500px|alt=Five panels of a color comic strip. The circular center panel overwhelms the others with an image of a giant turkey lifting up and eating a house. In the other panels, a boy is shaken from the house and falls into a lake of cranberry sauce.|McCay sized and placed panels to conform to the action they contained (November 25, 1905).{{efn|{{Commons file|Little Nemo 1905-11-26.jpg|The full version of this strip (November 26, 1905)}}}}]]

In his familiar [[Art Nouveau]]-influenced style, McCay outlined his characters in heavy blacks. Slumberland's ornate architecture was reminiscent of the architecture designed by [[McKim, Mead & White]] for the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago, as well as [[Luna Park (Coney Island, 1903)|Luna Park]] and [[Dreamland (Coney Island, 1904)|Dreamland]] in [[Coney Island]], and the Parisian [[Luxembourg Palace]].{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=100}}

{{multiple image
|footer = ''Nemo''{{'}}s ornate architecture was inspired by McCay's memories of the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago, and his experience working at [[Coney Island]] ([[Luna Park, Coney Island (1903)|Luna Park]] pictured).
|align  = center

|image1 = Little Nemo 1905-12-17 panel nine.jpg
|width1 = 197
|alt1   = A comic strip panel.  A character in a frilled red suit points a boy at a city with ostentatious architecture.

|image2 = The Dragon's Gorge, Luna Park, Coney Island, NY.jpg
|width2 = 303
|alt2   = A colored photograph of an ornately-decorated amusement park.
}}

McCay made imaginative use of color, sometimes changing the backgrounds' or characters' colors from panel to panel in a [[psychedelic (disambiguation)|psychedelic]] imitation of a dream experience. The colors were enhanced by the careful attention and advanced [[Ben-Day dots|Ben Day]] lithographic process employed by the ''Herald''{{'}}s printing staff.{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|pp=100–101}} McCay annotated the ''Nemo'' pages for the printers with the precise color schemes he wanted.{{sfnm|1a1=Harvey|1y=1994|1p=22|2a1=Canemaker|2y=2005|2p=107}}

For the first five months the pages were accompanied with captions beneath them,{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=107}} and at first the captions were numbered.{{sfn|Bukatman|2012|p=27}} In contrast to the high level of skill in the artwork, the dialogue in the speech balloons is crude, sometimes approaching illegibility,{{sfnm|1a1=Gutjahr|1a2=Benton|1y=2001|1p=166|2a1=Heller|2y=2007}} and "disfigur{{interp|ing McCay's}} otherwise flawless work", according to critic [[R. C. Harvey]].{{sfn|Harvey|1994|p=28}} The level of effort and skill apparent in the title lettering highlights{{sfn|Gutjahr|Benton|2001|p=166}} what seems to be the little regard for the dialogue balloons, their content, and their placement in the visual composition.

McCay used ethnic stereotypes prominently in ''Little Nemo'', as in the ill-tempered Irishman Flip, and the nearly-mute African Impie.{{sfn|Winokur|2012|pp=58, 63}}