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Back in the day Checker Books was a company that specialized in reprinting old comic strips and books, including a bunchy of Winsor McCay comics. Run by Mark Christopher Thompson, the company kind of faded away after a dispute with Diamond, although Thompson later teamed up with the relaunched Devil’s Due. Well, they’re back, sorta with a kickstarter for The Winsor McCay Project , a second crack at funding a two volume reprint of McCay’s great Little Nemo.

Checker Books’ production values were sometimes not awesome, but they did offer affordable reprints at a time when those weren’t hat common,. Now, of course, high end deluxe reprints are all the age, but if you can’t afford Sunday Press Books’ $220 Nemo reprints, this could be a viable option. (There’s also an OOP Fantagraphics reprint series.) Anyway, I’m not vouching for this being the best ever reprint of Little Nemo, but if you want to fund the project and preorder a copy, there it is.

5 COMMENTS

  1. I’m pretty willing to vouch for it NOT being anything close to the best reprint ever of Little Nemo, and I am a big coward who never vouches for anything

  2. Checker Books already has a place in comics-reprint Heaven, based solely on their Winsor McCay Early Works nine volume series.

    I’m with others who tout the Sunday Press collections (all of theirs, actually), but the Early Works series show one eye-numbing page after another of McCay’s work.

    Do we wish we had better reproduction of the images? Sure, and I wish I had a million bucks, too.

    When you look at the collective effort it must have taken to find even serviceable images for reproduction, it’s inspiring.

    Anyway, while I’m going to hold onto my Sunday Press copies, I just want to take this space to thank Checker for even existing!

  3. Taschen did a hardcover last decade (I recall the red cover).
    Little Nemo: 1905-1914 9783822863008
    Slightly oversized… your typical art book, thick.

    In April, they plan to offer a one volume edition of 600 pages for $200.
    It doesn’t appear on their website, but the EAN is 9783836545112.

    Dover Publications also reprinted a few books of McKay’s… Rarebit Fiend, Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice and Further Adventures.

    Hey… who owns the copyright on the post-1923 material?

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