The strip is considered McCay's masterpiece for its experiments with the form of the comics page, its use of color and perspective, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, and its architectural and other details.

The strip was renamed In the Land of Wonderful Dreams when McCay brought it to William Randolph Hearst's New York American, where it ran from September 3, 1911 until July 26, 1914.

A green, cigar-chewing clown named Flip was determined to disturb Nemo's sleep with a top hat emblazoned with the words "Wake Up".

The group travels far and wide, from shanty towns to Mars, to Jack Frost's palace, to the bizarre architecture and distorted funhouse-mirror illusions of Befuddle Hall.

On July 12, 1908, McCay made a major change of direction: Flip visits Nemo and tells him that he has had his uncle destroy Slumberland (it had been dissolved before, into day, but this time it appeared to be permanent).

McCay experimented with the form of the comics page, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, perspective, and architectural and other detail.

In an early Thanksgiving episode, the focal action of a giant turkey gobbling Nemo's house receives an enormous circular panel in the center of the page.

[4] McCay controlled narrative pacing through variation or repetition, as with equally-sized panels whose repeated layouts and minute differences in movement conveyed a feeling of buildup to some climactic action.

The colors were enhanced by the careful attention and advanced Ben Day lithographic process employed by the Herald's printing staff.

[12] In contrast to the high level of skill in the artwork, the dialogue in the speech balloons is crude, sometimes approaching illegibility,[13] and "disfigur[ing McCay's] otherwise flawless work", according to critic R. C.

[14] The level of effort and skill apparent in the title lettering highlights[15] what seems to be the little regard for the dialogue balloons, their content, and their placement in the visual composition.

McCay experimented with the form of the comics page, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, perspective, architectural and other detail.

In 1966, cartoonist Woody Gelman discovered the original artwork for many Little Nemo strips at a cartoon studio where McCay's son Bob had worked.

In summer 1907, Marcus Klaw and A. L. Erlanger announced they would put on an extravagant Little Nemo show for an unprecedented $100,000, with a score by Victor Herbert[38] and lyrics by Harry B.

[43] One source indicates that the dialogue in fact began as an ad lib by actor Joseph Cawthorn, covering for some kind of backstage problem during a performance.

[45] Talespinner Children's Theatre in Cleveland, OH produced a scaled-down, "colorful and high-energy 45-minute"[46] adaptation in 2013, Adventures In Slumberland by David Hansen.

The play, simply entitled Little Nemo in Slumberland, was written by Aladdin Lee Grant Rutledge Collar, and directed by student Peter McNally.

In 1911, he completed his first film, Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics (also known as Little Nemo), first in theatres and then as part of his vaudeville act.

It involves a little boy called Nemo, who wears pajamas and travels to a fantasy world, but otherwise the connection to McCay's strip is a loose one.

Jason Momoa stars as a radically altered version of Flip, who is described as a "nine-foot tall creature that is half-man, half-beast, has shaggy fur and long curved tusks".

The dreamlike nonlinear story told of Nemo, the Princess, and their comrades trying to prevent the Emperor of Sol and the Guardian of Dawn from bringing daylight to Slumberland.

In 1993, as promotion for the 1989 animated film, Hemdale produced a Collector's Set which includes a VHS movie, illustrated storybook, and cassette soundtrack.

[60][61] Since its publishing, Little Nemo has had an influence on other artists, including Peter Newell (The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead), Frank King (Bobby Make-Believe), Clare Briggs (Danny Dreamer) or George McManus (Nibsy the Newsboy in Funny Fairyland).

Their concept piece was revived on the second album by the Greek band Anger Department, titled The Strange Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend, again after a McCay-comic.

Williams III)'s Promethea, a more direct pastiche – "Little Margie in Misty Magic Land"[66] – showed Moore's inspiration and debt to McCay's landmark 1905 strip.

1996), which features George Alec Effinger's short "Seven Nights in Slumberland" (where Nemo interacts with Neil Gaiman's characters The Endless).

In 1989, teen comic book Power Pack ran an issue (#47) which paid direct homage to one of McCay's Nemo storylines, featuring a castle that was drawn sideways and Katie Power re-enacting a classic Nemo panel with a sideways-drawn hallway that served as a bottomless pit with the line "Don't fall in, y'hear?"

[citation needed] In 1994–1995, French artist Moebius wrote the story to a sequel comic series, Little Nemo, drawn by Bruno Marchand in two albums.

[73] Eric Shanower and Gabriel Rodriguez revived the characters in 2014 in an IDW comic book series entitled Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland.

Harvey claims that McCay's contemporaries lacked the skill to continue with his innovations, so that they were left for future generations to rediscover and build upon.