Week 3: The Comic Strip - Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, Peanuts, etc.

The comic strip was established as a mass media form in the United States when there was no such this as a television or radio, but only a newspaper. Comic strips were a form of sequential storytelling, most often telling an entire short story in just four or five frames. They had become extremely popular and people couldn’t wait to read the new comic strips in the Sunday newspapers, making Sundays the biggest circulation days for newspaper companies. And even though newspaper comics have moved and evolved to web comics, I still believe there is nothing like reading a comic on printed paper. After reading Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Krazy Kat, Popeye, Polly & Her Pals, Captain Easy, and many others, I thought it was very interesting seeing the different defining characteristics each comic strip has. Each comic has their own special style which really makes them stand out and become more recognizable. For example, Little Nemo was full of very dull colors and was based on fantasy and dreamlike situations and filled up a single page, meanwhile Captain Easy contained some strips with very vibrant colors and others with dull, but were full of action and continued for multiple pages. Overall, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland by Winsor McCay was my favorite comic strip out of the few that I read. I loved the idea of a continuous/repetitive storyline of a boy having a dream about an unrealistic fantasy and then always ending with the boy waking up either on his own or by his parents. The artwork is just breathtaking and even if you don’t enjoy the storyline, you can’t help but admire the drawings themselves.