Little Nemo in Slumberland original artwork

The theme across Sendak's works of sleeping, dreaming, waking and the journeys in between is encapsulated in Winsor McCay's long-standing Little Nemo comics, which ran from 1905 to 1927. The first comic begins with the King of Slumberland summoning the little boy Nemo to his palace, setting in motion Nemo's many attempts to reach that far-away place – a journey that can only be completed in his sleep. The main conceit for all of the comic strips is that the final panel always shows Nemo safe in his bed, having been awoken by some interruption. Eventually, many years after the first comic, Nemo does reach Slumberland, but the artwork for the present comic strip comes from this intermediary phase. Nemo, en route to a carnival, travels by elephant and then self-propelling-carriage-turned-rollercoaster before being awoken by the rollercoaster's vertical loop, never getting to see the promised carnival. Sendak being drawn to a narrative that consists of being asleep, having an awesome and frightening adventure, and winding up safe in a warm bed feels deeply connected to his own understanding of storytelling as practiced in Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside over There and more.