Little Sammy Sneeze

Some may have dismissed Little Sammy Sneeze as a curious oddity, a historical footnote to McCay’s subsequent masterpiece, Little Nemo in Slumberland . But after looking more closely at this unique comic strip, one realizes its significance, not only as an essential part of the creator’s impressive body of work, but also as a developmental milestone in the evolution of comic art.

There is more here than the simple repetitive gag of the destructive sneeze. Each strip offers a vignette of the American middle-class life a century ago, with greater variety and insight than most offerings of the day. The cinematic elements of Sammy Sneeze create a novel link between the two art forms and display McCay’s emerging interest in storytelling and animation. The essays in this book, from world-renowned historians, develop these and other concepts for a fresh look at Little Sammy Sneeze . Yet the true revelations for the reader will come from the strips themselves.