The man who hand-drew 25,000 mathematically precise animation frames left no reliable record of his own birth year, which falls anywhere from 1866 to 1871 depending on the document, possibly a deliberate blur to soften the scandal of eloping with his 14-year-old wife Maude. This episode explores the encyclopedic life of Winsor McCay, from a Michigan childhood where he etched a burning town into frosted glass with a nail, to skipping business college for Detroit dime museums where he drew rapid portraits for 25 cents, to the blackboard perspective drills from glass stainer John Goodison that gave him an uncanny gift for memory sketching.

At the New York Herald he transformed the comic strip with Dream of the Rarebit Fiend and Little Nemo in Slumberland, stretching panels to fit growing mushrooms and letting characters bend their own borders, ...