Sketching Under the Influence? Winsor McCay and the Question of Aesthetic Convergence Between Comic Strips and Film

Abstract

The formal similarities between comic strips and film have often sparked a contentious debate about aesthetic intersections between the two mediums as well as discussions of influence. Comic historian David Kunzle, drawing from the work of Francis Lacassin, has described how characteristics of film form can be traced back to comic strips of the mid to late 1800s. Film historian Donald Crafton, on the other hand, posits that comic strips had little, if any, influence over the evolution of film language. Analyzing both Winsor McCay’s comic strips and animated adaptations, this article hopes to utilize historically informed textual analysis to complicate the question of aesthetic influence.