Winsor McCay was born in Spring Lake, MI. The same town that I live in now. I chose McCay as my illustrator partly because of feeling a connection with him because of him being born in the town I live in now, but mostly because Winsor McCay is known as a father of animation and of sequential art. What I want to do most with my art is to tell a story, and I believe that words pair well with pictures to tell a particular story. I did not realize until pondering on the title of one of McCay’s best works, “Little Nemo,” that I remembered flipping through the giant pages of a book in my town’s library full of all things Winsor McCay. I did not understand as well before the impact that other peoples’ history can have on a person until now. I doubt that Winsor McCay and I are related in any way by blood, yet I feel that he is like my ancestor; someone who has gone before me and done the things I dream to do first so that I may have a place to learn from and draw my inspiration. That is exactly what Winsor McCay has done for me and for so many others; he has paved the way so that sequential art had the opportunity to evolve farther into what it is now. Even Walt Disney himself, a man so well known for his animation films, owes his entire accomplishments to McCay.