''Little Sammy Sneeze'' was a comic strip by American cartoonist

Winsor McCay Zenas Winsor McCay ( – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip ''Little Nemo'' (1905–14; 1924–26) and the animated film ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). For contractual reasons, he worke ...

. In each episode the titular Sammy sneezed himself into an awkward or disastrous predicament. The strip ran from July 24, 1904 until December 9, 1906 in the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'', where McCay was on the staff. It was McCay's first successful comic strip; he followed it with ''

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' is a newspaper comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay, begun September 10, 1904. It was McCay's second successful strip, after ''Little Sammy Sneeze'' secured him a position on the cartoon staff of the '' ...

'' later in 1904, and his best-known strip ''

Little Nemo in Slumberland Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'', before receiving his own spin-off series, ''Little Nemo in Slumberland''. The f ...

'' in 1905. In contrast to the imaginative layouts of ''Little Nemo'', ''Sammy Sneeze'' was confined to a rigid grid and followed a strict formula: Sammy's sneeze would build frame by frame, contorting the protagonist's face until it erupted in the second-to-last panel. In the closing panel he suffered the consequences—often a kick in the rear. McCay's artwork was finely detailed and highly accurate in its persistent repetition. He delved into modernist experimentation, shattering

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

s and even the strip's panel borders. The panel-by-panel buildup displayed McCay's concern with depicting motion, a concern that was to culminate in his pioneering animated films of the 1910s, such as ''

Gertie the Dinosaur ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' is a 1914 animated short film by American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur. McCay first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaude ...

'' (1914).

Premise

The strip follows a simple concept: in each weekly instalment, Sammy sneezes with such power that it wreaked havoc with his surroundings. His sneeze builds until its release with the

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

"Chow!" in the second-to-last panel. In the last panel he suffers the consequences—being driven away by one of his victims, or often receiving a kick in the rear. Little Sammy Sneeze 1904-09-11.jpg, September 11, 1904 Little Sammy Sneeze 1905-04-30.jpg, April 30, 1905

Background

worked in

dime museum Dime museums were institutions that were popular at the end of the 19th century in the United States. Designed as centers for entertainment and moral education for the working class ( lowbrow), the museums were distinctly different from upper mid ...

s in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

from 1891, where he drew posters and advertisements. His ability to draw quickly with great accuracy drew crowds when he painted advertisements in public. He began working as a newspaper cartoonist full-time in 1898, and also freelanced for humor magazines. McCay moved to New York City in 1903 to work for the ''

'', leaving behind his first comic strip, ''A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle''. From January 1904 he created a number of other short-lived strips, before finding popular success with ''Sammy Sneeze'' that July. In addition to his editorial cartooning, in 1905 he was producing five regular comic strips: ''Little Sammy Sneeze'', ''

'', ''

'', ''Hungry Henrietta'', and ''A Pilgrim's Progress''. ''Little Sammy Sneeze'' was one of three strips (with ''Little Nemo'' and ''Hungry Henrietta'') that starred a child protagonist; this may have been under the influence of Richard F. Outcault's popular ''

Yellow Kid The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', and later William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in th ...

'' and ''

Buster Brown Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the United States of America ...

'' strips.

Style and analysis

The strip was almost always laid out in a rigid grid: Sammy's sneeze builds in the first four panels to a release in the fifth and consequences for Sammy in the sixth. This is in contrast to the great variety of panel sizes and layouts displayed in McCay's earlier strip ''The Jungle Imps'', and later much more prominently in ''Little Nemo''. Sammy was inarticulate, making little more than mouth noises; the adults around him conversed, but in a monotonous manner that did not invite careful reading. Neither did he learn from his foibles nor grow as a character. Sammy and McCay's other child protagonists differ from those of Outcault and other popular cartoonists, such as

Rudolph Dirks Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 – April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' (later known as ''The Captain and the Kids''). Dirks was born in Heide, Germany, to Joh ...

and his rambunctious, pranking ''

Katzenjammer Kids ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).

'' (also 1904) and more fully explored them when he began ''Little Nemo'' the following year. While the technical dexterity ''Little Nemo'' draws the greatest share of attention among McCay's works, Katherine Roeder finds the formally lower-key ''Sammy Sneeze'' "tested the limits of visual representation and demonstrated the comic strip's potential as a vehicle for modernist experimentation". McCay was fond of breaking the

, a well-known example of which is the September 24, 1905, episode: the gag unfolds according to formula, culminating in the destruction of the very panel borders of the comic strip itself. The strip may pay homage to ''

Fred Ott's Sneeze ''Fred Ott's Sneeze'' (also known as ''Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze'') is an 1894 short, black-and-white, silent film shot by William K.L. Dickson and featuring Fred Ott. It is the oldest surviving motion picture with a copyright. I ...

''—a filmstrip of the progression of a man sneezing. The photographs appeared in ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'' in 1884 and were well known. As in the film, and unusual for the ''Sammy Sneeze'' strip, the September 24 episode has a closeup of the sneezer against a blank background, and Sammy's gestures echo those of Ott. McCay was concerned with depicting the seldom-perceived minutiae of movement, though his was not the scientific curiosity found in the

chronophotography Chronophotography is a photographic technique from the Victorian era which captures a number of phases of movements. The best known chronophotography works were mostly intended for the scientific study of locomotion, to discover practical informa ...

Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...

Étienne-Jules Marey Étienne-Jules Marey (; 5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d'Or – 15 May 1904, Paris) was a French scientist, physiologist and chronophotographer. His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinema ...

, and

Georges Demenÿ Georges Demenÿ (12 June 1850 in Douai – 26 October 1917 in Paris) was a French inventor, chronophotographer, filmmaker, gymnast and physical fitness enthusiast. Main publications *''L’Éducation physique en Suède'', Paris, Société d'� ...

. McCay emphasizes the lack of order and irrational unpredictability of the human body. McCay's concern was to culminate in his pioneering animated films such as ''

'' (1914). Comic strips as early as

A.B. Frost Arthur Burdett Frost (January 17, 1851 – June 22, 1928), usually cited as A. B. Frost, was an American illustrator, graphic artist, painter and comics writer. He is best known for his illustrations of Br'er Rabbit, Brer Rabbit and othe ...

's incorporated the repetition of backgrounds inspired by chronophotography, and by the time of ''Sammy Sneeze'' had become a standard comic-strip trope—one comics historian Thierry Smolderen suggests McCay may have deliberately parodied. Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze

Though the story of mischievous children and the trouble they caused was typical of comic strips of the day, in contrast to such other popular strips as ''

The Katzenjammer Kids ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).Buster Brown Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the United States of America ...

'', the havoc Sammy wreaked was unintentional. To Roeder, the humor at the expense of both the adults and the child likely appealed to a broad range of readers, and may have broadened the appeal of comic strips to conservative middle-class audiences. These audiences may have seen the inevitable consequences for Sammy as a restoration of a natural social order, one that was left rent asunder in other comic strips. Sammy is given an unappealing character design and personality, with dull features and expression that do not invite the reader's sympathy; his character is never developed. Similar to Buster Brown, Sammy dresses in a dress shirt, lace collar, and cravat. This style associated with middle-class aspirations and popularized toward the end of the 19th century in the wake of the success of ''

Little Lord Fauntleroy ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's (the publisher of ''St. Nicholas'') in 1886. The ill ...

''. By the time ''Sammy Sneeze'' had begun the style was a subject of ridicule; in an age where respectable society went to lengths to avoid drawing attention to bodily functions, it emphasized the humorous contortions of Sammy's face as he built up toward his sneeze. His sneeze could also tear down other symbols of the middle-class, such as an expansive department store display of goods at Christmas. The strip's header declared to each side of the title "He just simply couldn't stop" and "He never knew when it was coming", and never strayed from the basic formula of build-up, release, and consequence. McCay was to make use of such framing devices throughout his career, as in ''Little Nemo'' where the reader could rely on the protagonist awakening in the closing panel each week.

Scott Bukatman Scott Bukatman is a cultural theorist and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. Bukatman's research examines how popular media (film, comics) and genres (science fiction, musicals, superhero narratives) "mediate between new ...

and

Thierry Smolderen Thierry Smolderen (born 25 November 1954) is an essay writer, and a scenario writer of Belgian comic strips, for example of ''Gipsy''. He is a teacher at École des Beaux-Arts of Angoulême, and he devotes his energy to realising '' Coconino World ...

saw the monotony of ''Sammy Sneeze'' as an attempt by McCay at parody—one that, in Smolderen's words, "chuckles at the absurdity of ... doing the same thing ad nauseam".

Publication

Winsor McCay - Little Sammy Sneeze (1905) book cover

''Little Sammy Sneeze'' began on July 24, 1904, in the ''

'', where McCay had joined the staff in 1903. It ran in color until partway through 1905, and came to an end December 9, 1906. McCay joined

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

's newspapers in 1911, and Sammy made a reappearance in them on February 4, 1912, in a one-off strip titled "All at Once—Kerchoo!—He Sneezed" in During ''Sammy''s run, McCay's ''Hungry Henrietta'' strip tended to appear on the same date as ''Sammy Sneeze'', including every ''Henrietta'' strip that ran in 1905. One crossover strip ends with Henrietta eating candy that Sammy has sneezed onto the floor. In 1906, a compilation volume of the strips appeared—not only in the United States, but in France where the ''Herald''s publisher

James Gordon Bennett Jr. James Gordon Bennett Jr. (May 10, 1841May 14, 1918) was publisher of the ''New York Herald'', founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett Sr. (1795–1872), who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him ...

was based. ''Sammy'' was one of the earliest American strips to appear in Europe.

Sunday Press Books Sunday Press Books is an American publisher of comic strip reprint collections founded in 2005 by Peter Maresca. The company is known as a respected reprinter of comic strips and has to date won three Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards. Since 202 ...

released a deluxe landscape-format hardcover volume called ''Little Sammy Sneeze: The Complete Color Sunday Comics 1904–1905'' in 2007. On the reverse of each ''Sammy Sneeze'' page appears a non-''Sammy Sneeze'' strip—the complete run of McCay's ''The Story of Hungry Henrietta'', as well as selections from

John Prentiss Benson John Prentiss Benson (also John P. Benson) (1865–1947) was an American architect and artist noted for his maritime paintings. Early life Benson was born into a prosperous family in Salem, Massachusetts. He was trained as an architect at the ...

's ''The Woozlebeasts'', and

Gustave Verbeek Gustave Verbeek (August 29, 1867 – December 5, 1937) was a Dutch-American illustrator and cartoonist, best known for his newspaper cartoons in the early 1900s featuring an inventive use of word play and visual storytelling tricks. Biography V ...

's ''The Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo'' and ''The Terrors of the Tiny Tads''. These bonus strips appear in monochrome to ''Sammy Sneeze''s color, as newspapers at the time normally printed color on only one side of the page.

Legacy

After a two-and-a-half-year run, McCay dropped the strip, while continuing to work on ''

'', ''Pilgrim's Progress'', and his best-known work, ''

Little Nemo Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'', before receiving his own spin-off series, ''Little Nemo in Slumberland''. The f ...

''. It has since mostly been remembered as a precursor to McCay's better-known strips, receiving little attention itself outside of a few key strips. The strip's concept was later picked up by the creators of characters such as Sneezly Seal and

Li'l Sneezer The ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' animated television series features an extensive cast of characters. The show's central characters are mostly various forms of anthropomorphic animals, based on Looney Tunes characters from earlier films and show ...

Notes

References

Works cited

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External links

Barnacle Press: Little Sammy Sneeze
{{Winsor McCay navbox 1904 comics debuts 1906 comics endings Sneeze, Sammy American comic strips Sneeze, Sammy Sneeze, Sammy Sneeze, Sammy Comic strips by Winsor McCay Gag-a-day comics Sneeze, Sammy