Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist born in 1869 in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for creating the comic strip Little Nemo in 1905, about the nightly dreams of a young boy named Nemo. Little Nemo featured imaginative dream scenarios and adventures. McCay was also a pioneering animator, creating one of the earliest animated films, Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914, which helped establish animation as an art form. Little Nemo remains an influential early comic strip due to its creative storylines and McCay's unique drawing style.