Winsor McCay

Google has today celebrated the 107th anniversary of the American illustrator's Little Nemo in Slumberland by recreating the comic strip

Pioneer: Winsor McCay's animated films inspired Walt Disney

To mark the 107th anniversary of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, Google has created one of its most elaborate doodles ever.

Here are 10 things you need to know about the cartoonist...
1. Winsor Zenic McCay was born in Spring Lake, Michigan, on 26 September 1869, according to his tombstone, although he himself claimed to have been born in 1871
2. McCay's first major comic strip series was A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle in the Cincinnati Enquirer
3. He is best known for the comic strip Little Nemo, which was based on the adventures of a boy of around six-years-old and ran in the New York Herald from 1905 to 1911
4. For legal reasons, McCay worked under the pen name "Silas" on the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend
5. McCay was hired by William Randolph Hearst in 1911 and went to work on the newspaper mogul's New York American as an editorial cartoonist

Groundbreaking: The Little Nemo doodle is one of Google's most elaborate yet

6. McCay's cartoons were never overwhelmingly popular, but always had a strong following because of his expressive graphic style
7. He also started to experiment with animated cartoons and created the 1914 classic Gertie the Dinosaur
8. His pioneering early animated films set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades
9. McCay also created The Sinking of the Lusitania, a propaganda cartoon which contained a message that was meant to inspire America to enter World War I
10. McCay died on July 26, 1934 of a cerebral embolism