Little Nemo may be just a little comic hero, but he is still one of the greatest dream travelers of the 20th century. The restless sleeper was drawn weekly in a full-page comic strip from his bed to Slumberland, where he encountered wondrous characters and experienced fantastic adventures in psychedelic settings.

Nemo’s creator, Winsor McCay (1869–1934), was one of the key figures in the American entertainment industry at the beginning of the 20th century. In original vaudeville stage shows, he linked reality and drawn fiction in astonishing ways, thereby defining—one and a half decades before Walt Disney—the standards of animation that would remain valid across generations. But above all, his beloved comic characters made him famous. His virtuoso play with panel layout, perspectives, timing, and narrative levels, as well as his interest in architectural and other details, influenced many artists after him, including Robert Crumb and Federico Fellini.

TASCHEN’s large-format volume Winsor McCay – The Complete Little Nemo collects all 549 episodes of Little Nemo that appeared in the comic supplements of major American Sunday newspapers. In his extensive essay, illustrated with historical photos and documents, art historian and comic expert Alexander Braun places McCay’s life and work in the cultural context of the American entertainment industry and shows the immense significance Nemo’s dream sequences have in art history. This volume—an adventure story, a feast for the eyes, and a piece of cultural history all in one—is a tribute to one of the most innovative pioneers and boldest explorers in the land of comics.