Lost Winsor McCay Art Found
Sunday, June 4th, 2006
In early January 2006, a stranger called The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library to say that she had found some old cartoons tucked in a stack of boxes that had been sitting in her family’s business for decades. The caller wanted to bring her find to the library, and soon she arrived with a battered cardboard folio. When it was opened, a treasure appeared. Inside were original, hand-colored drawings from Winsor McCay’s first comic strip, A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle. Up to that moment, no original drawings of the strip were known to exist. The finder has asked to remain anonymous.
Until January 2006 none of the original drawings created by Winsor McCay had been seen for more than a century. The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library acquired five of the original hand-colored drawings which comprise this exhibit. Unlike other extant examples of McCay’s original comic strips, A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fidldle are hand-colored. Although the reason McCay painted them is unknown, it may be that since this was his first effort at a comic strip, he was unsure how engravers might follow his color instructions and wanted to be sure that his preferences were clear.
Link via Drawn! (Who have a bigger, hi res version of the picture)
