Gad zooks. I love reading comic strips, the older ones are the best. I recently found a Dover Editions copy of Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice by Winsor McCay. It’s not as good as Lionel Feininger’s The Kinder-Kids, but it’s still a cut above the rest. McCay’s comic strips came out in 1907, they were published in the New York Herald. Feiniger’s comic strips came out in 1906, they were published in the Chicago Daily Tribune.

My dad was a big fan of Feininger’s work. He did not want to give me his copy of The Kinder-Kids. After he died, I took it. This was the thing I took from his vast book collection. I do not know if was equally fond of McKay’s work. I do know that on occasion he mentioned Little Nemo, so he at least knew of him. I’d like to take a course on the early history of comics. What illustrators are doing now pale by comparison.

It is most likely usually the case – parents die and so questions that surface remain unanswered. This, to me, is among life’s greatest unfairness. I did not have children; I am sure that if I had that they’d be left with unanswered questions, maybe about my interest in these two illustrators.

I knew very little about children’s literature before I began the Bright Lights Book Project. Now I know quite a bit. Some authors, like comic strip artists, work hard at their craft and I am sure they are equally unappreciated. Maurice Sendak was an exception. I just read a children’s book that he illustrated in 1958 – it may have been his first. It is entitled Along Came a Dog, and it’s about a stray dog and a red hen. The dog wanders into the farmer’s yard and befriends the red hen who has lost her claws. The farmer is unaware of this, and tries, several times, to get rid of the dog by dumping it off a distant road.

The chickens and the rooster have it out for the red hen. Unbeknownst to the farmer, the dog repeatedly saves the red hen’s life. This is such a brutal book that it had to have a good ending, and it does – the farmer finally figures out that the dog did not (as he thought) kill the red hen and in fact watched out for her when she went broody. When the hen and her five chicks, and the dog return to the barnyard, he takes all into the kitchen.

We humans lack a strong sense of smell, sight, and hearing. This story reminded me of this. And I thought of this again today when I took the dogs for a walk and we spotted a moose to the side of Jim’s Road. Ryder and Shadow sniffed the air when they saw it – undoubtedly they were information gathering, in an attempt to find out if the moose was something they should chase. I suspect that they eventually thought not, because they didn’t head in that direction. Instead, they came to me and got treats.

Next: 65. 3/7/24: Yee Haw