Books

The Complete Little Nemo Compilation

20th Nov 2014

Just check out the size of this beast! Almost 14 inches by 17 inches! There are 2 volumes and 708 pages. The books should come with a safety hazard warning. Do not attempt sit this one on your lap!

This is a prestigious release from Taschen, who have swam in Little Nemo territory before. Here for the first time is the entire collection of Little Nemo comic shorts, all printed in glorious colour.

Winsor McCay launched Little Nemo first back in 1905 and it run until 1926. Taschen’s collection here comes largely in one beautifully covered hard back edition with little to no navigation inside other than the fact that the book will present all of the comics in the order that they appeared; Each one filling up an entire page. And each page (Again see the size we mentioned) is likely to be the biggest they have been printed to date – and in colour as well.

The colour grades used are debatable as to how accurate they would be to the originals – but the originals were indeed used to produce this lengthy and heavy volume. But it is clear the moment you are into reading this that the quality is the finest they have to offer.

The second book within the box is where author Alexander Braun places Macay’s life in history to give readers context for the times the artist lived and worked in. This second volume has a soft cover so is a bit more user friendly, but is very text heavy compared to the pure comic content of the hardback volume.

Taschen do not seem to do much by halves. This is an expensively produced title and is at £135 retail price. It may not be a cheap purchase, but it isn’t for the idol book monger – this is a collector’s edition and is likely to have fans foaming at the mouth once they have it open.