Cartoon Research Library acquires five McCay originals

The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library has acquired five original hand-colored illustrations from Winsor McCay's first comic strip, The Tales of the Jungle Imps, which the cartoonist created in 1903 after joining the staff of The Cincinnati Enquirer.

McCay, best known for his revolutionary Little Nemo in Slumberland, drew 43 installments of The Tales of the Jungle Imps, based on poems and stories about pixies and imaginary animals written by 'Felix Fiddle" (editor George Chester).

According to the library website, none of the original drawings had been seen in more than a century until January, when the artwork was obtained from an anonymous finder.

The five strips -- "How the Turtle Got His Shell," "How the Quillypig Got His Quills," "How the Rhinoceros Lost His Beauty," "How the Hound Got So Thin" and "Fourth of July in the Jungle" -- are undergoing preservation treatment, and will be exhibited to the public from June 15 to Aug. 31 in the library's Reading Room Gallery. Digital versions will be available on the library's website.

(Link via The Daily Cartoonist)