By David Welch

Winsor McCay happens to be my all-time favorite comic artist. He is also considered by most historically-minded comic art afficionados to be technically the most skilled and most imaginative. When most Scoop readers hear that name, they will think of the legendary Sunday comic strip, Little Nemo, that ran from from 1905 to 1914 and then revived again in brief years in the 1920s. Next, some readers will also recognize McKay as the creator of the 1914 animated cartoon, Gertie the Dinosaur. Gertie is considered the first cartoon character and the quality of McCay's animation at that early time still astounds animation buffs to this day. Disney's studio was not able to match McCay's standard until almost 20 tears later. But there's one accomplishment of Winsor McCay that even I was not aware of until last year in 2005. Who the heck are the "Jungle Imps?"

When I was in my early teens in the early '70s, I began getting involved in the nostalgia craze of that time. I first became aware of McCay through an 8mm and 16mm film vendor called Blackhawk Films in Iowa. In those days, they had copies of Gertie the Dinosaur for sale (the catalog listed the date as 1909 in error) so I bought one for the whopping price of about $8.

That purchase marked the beginning of my life-long fascination with Winsor McKay. When I bought John Canemaker's exhaustive 1987 biography of McKay last year off eBay, I saw something in the page 48-54 section that floored me: he had in 1903 created a Sunday strip that ran ONLY in the Cincinnati Enquirer called, "Tales of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle." The book shows three color examples photographed from heavily worn Sunday newspaper tear sheets from the McCay family. The color is wonderful and the brilliant art is obviously McKay. He did 43 different stories for this strip in 1903 . I could not believe what I was seeing and reading! In 30+ years of collecting, not once had I ever heard this strip mentioned by anyone. (see the recent release by Checker Books called Winsor McCay-Early Works for 39 of the 43 Imps strips shown in black and white along with his other lesser known strips-- Little Sammy Sneeze, Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend, and A Pilgrim's Progress).

Now fast forward to 2006. In late January, I was searching around the internet for some information and values on original McCay Gertie the Dinosaur drawings. I had bought five in 2005. I came across the website of an art dealer who had a very nice selection of Gerties so I decided to call him up and chat. Once we began talking, he told me something I could not believe---he was at that very moment holding in his hands the original art to a McCay Jungle Imps Sunday page that had just arrived that day. And perhaps the most stunning revelation?----it was HAND-COLORED ! This moment was the beginning of a drama that would take over 2 months to completely unfold. This example--"How the Pelican Got His Pouch"-- was the first ever to be seen of McCay Jungle Imps original art.

As we continued to talk, he related that a family in Ohio who had a family business in sign-making for many decades was the source... and they were in possession of a total of eleven different examples that had been in their family for over 100 years. Well, condensing 2+ months into a short (relatively) story, the art dealer eventually went partners with another art dealer that I know. A third party became involved called the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library... much negotiating and time passed... and the family sold three and donated two to the OSU Library and the two art dealers bought the remaining six. As seasoned collectors can guess, I am also editing out much deal-related "drama."

An April 24,2006 press release from OSU curator, Lucy Shelton Caswell, said this: The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library acquired five of the original hand-colored drawings from their finder: "How the Turtle Got His Shell," "How the Quillypig Got His Quills," "How the Rhinoceros Lost His Beauty," "How the Hound Got So Thin," and "Fourth of July in the Jungle." "It's remarkable that these originals would turn up in Columbus, Ohio which is the only city in the country with an academic library devoted to cartoons," said Caswell. "We're delighted that the family who found these important works understood that some of them belonged in an institution where they would be preserved and protected while also being made accessible to scholars, researchers and students." The finder has asked to remain anonymous. (excerpt from the press release.) The "4th of July" example is one of the 4 missing from the previously mentioned Checker Books release.

The two art dealers obtained "How the Tiger Got His Stripes", "How the Pig Got His Appetite", "How the Camel Got His Back Up", "How the Snake Lost His Body", "Why the Parrot Learned to Talk", and "How the Pelican Got His Pouch".

So what are the Jungle Imps strips about, you ask? John Canemaker mentions in his biography, "Of all Winsor McCay's work experiences during his five years on Cincinnati newspapers, none would prove more significant for his future than the proto-comic strip he created for the Enquirer."The forty-three tales were based on poems written by George Randolph Chester (an editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer), running from January to November 1903. The stories were similar to Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. In each tale, an animal's anatomy is accounted for with stories involving three mischievious and somewhat cruel "jungle imps," and their pestering of various animals. John Canemaker says, "Tales of the Jungle Imps was Winsor McCay's first attempt in an extended series format to bring together all of his eclectic talents in a cohesive graphic style. On each page he found fresh ways to combine his exquisite draftsmanship, dynamic staging, sense of caricature, mastery of perspective, and feeling for motion with his version of the decorative art nouveau style."

Most educated comic art dealers would agree that this small find could rate as the single most historically significant comic art find in the past 20 years. And here is something to back up that statement: the only example of the 11 Imps pages found that made it to public sale was the Pelican. As stated earlier, five went to OSU. Of the six examples that found their way into the hands of the two art dealers, ALL the other five examples ended up selling to the first people who saw them in person. The original art dealer that I first contacted about the Gerties was showing them to certain clients at his gallery just to let them see what they looked like. None of these individuals would walk away without owning one! That the pages were hand-colored by McCay himself makes their visual appearance stunning and irresistable. So, three individuals bought one each and another person bought two.

In the past six months a Little Nemo sold privately for $55,000 and in Heritage earlier this year, a Little Nemo that had been cut up and reassembled and was missing the top title panel went for $40,000. Illustration House ran a weaker Nemo page recently that realized close to $28,000. So, 100 years later, McCay's art is still in high demand.