Little Nemo, the main fictional character by Winsor McCay (1871-1934), appeared in the "New York Herald" on October 15, 1905.
Although a comic strip, it was far from a simple children's fantasy; it was often dark, surreal, threatening and even violent. The strip related the dreams of a little boy: Nemo (meaning "nobody" in Latin), the hero. The last panel in each strip was always one of Nemo in or near his bed waking up, often being scolded by one of his parents or grandparents for crying out in his sleep and waking them. In the earliest strips, the dream event that woke him up would always be some mishap or disaster that seemed about to lead to serious injury or death, such as being crushed by giant mushrooms, being turned into a monkey, falling from a bridge being held up by "slaves", or gaining 90 years in age. The adventures leading to these disasters all had a common purpose: to get to Slumberland, where he had been summoned by King Morpheus, to be the "playmate" of his daughter, the Princess.
Sometime during early 1906, Nemo did indeed reach the gates of Slumberland, but had to go through about four months of troubles to reach the Princess. His problem was that he kept being awakened by Flip, who wore a hat with "Wake Up" written on it. One sight of Flip's hat was enough to take Nemo back to the land of the living during these early days. Although at first an enemy, Flip went on to become one of the recurring heroes. The others included: Dr Pill, The Imp, the Candy Kid and Santa Claus as well as the Princess and King Morpheus.
Few "comic" artists of any generation have ever matched, and even fewer have surpassed, the fertility of McCay's imagination. Certain episodes are particularly famous. Any list of these would have to include the Night of the Living Houses (said to be the first comic strip to enter the collection of the Louvre) where Nemo and a friend are chased down a city street by a gang of tenement houses on legs; the Walking Bed, where Nemo and Flip ride over the rooftops on the increasingly long limbs of Nemo's bed (see illustration); and the Befuddle Hall sequence, where Nemo and his friends attempt to find their way out of a funhouse environment of a Beaux Arts interior turned topsy-turvy. McCay's mastery of perspective, and the extreme elegance of his line work, make his visions graphically wondrous.
The strips, along with most of the rest of McCay's works, fell into the public domain worldwide on January 1, 2005.

Corto Maltese, a sailor-adventurer created by Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt, debuted in the serial "Una Ballata del Mare Salato" (Ballad of the Salt Sea, 1967) concerning smugglers and pirates in the WW1-era Pacific Islands. The comics have been translated in many languages outside Italy.
Corto Maltese (possibly derived from the Venetian Courtyard of the Maltese) is a laconic sea captain adventuring through the early 20th century (1900-1920s). A rogue with a heart of gold, he is tolerant and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta on July 10, 1887, he is a son of a British sailor from Cornwall and a gypsy witch from Gibraltar who carved his own life line on his palm, determining that his fate was his to choose. Although maintaining a neutral pose, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.
The character embodies the author's skepticism of national, ideological, and religious assertions. Corto befriends people from all walks of life, including murderous Russian Rasputin (no relation with the historical figure, apart a physical resemblance), British heir Tristan Bantam, Voodoo priestess Gold Mouth and Czech academic Jeremiah Steiner. He also knows and meets various historical figures, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Hesse, Butch Cassidy, Russian White general Roman von Ungern-Sternberg and Enver Pasha of Turkey. His acquaintances treat him with great respect, as when a telephone call to Josef Stalin frees him from arrest when he is threatened with execution on the border of Turkey and Armenia.
Corto's favourite reading is the Utopia by Thomas More, but he never finished it. He also read books by London, Stevenson, Melville and Conrad.
The Corto Maltese stories range from straight historical adventure stories to occult dream sequences. He sees the Red Baron shot down, helps Jivaros in South America, and flees Fascists in Venice, but also unwittingly helps Merlin and Oberon to defend Britain and visits the lost continent of Mu.

Sources: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Adventures of Tintin" ("Les Aventures de Tintin") is a series of comic strip narratives created by Georges Remi under the pseudonym Hergé (a transposing of his initials, R G, as pronounced in French). They first appeared in French in a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper "Le Vingtième Siècle" in 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, The Adventures of Tintin present a number of well realised characters in distinctive settings. The series has continued as a favourite of readers and critics alike for over 70 years.
The hero of the series is the titular character, Tintin, a young reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included Captain Haddock and other colourful supporting characters.
The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.[1]
The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature "ligne claire" style.
The adoption of colour allowed Hergé to expand the scope of the works. His use of colour was more advanced than that of American comics of the time, with better production values allowing a combination of the four printing shades and thus a cinematographic approach to lighting and shading. Hergé and his studio would allow images to fill half pages or, more simply, to detail and accentuate the scene, using colour to emphasise important points.[4] Hergé notes this fact, stating "I consider my stories as movies. No narration, no descriptions, emphasis is given to images."[
Engaging, well-researched plots, straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy; mysteries; political thrillers; and science fiction. The titles in the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Dylan Dog was created by Tiziano Sclavi for the Italian publishing house "Sergio Bonelli Editore" or, in English, "Bonelli Comics". "Dark Horse Comics" has published the English version of Dylan Dog.
Dylan Dog is a penniless nightmare investigator who defies the whole preceding horror tradition with a vein of surrealism and an anti-bourgeois rhetoric. The true monsters in many of these stories are human beings.
The series is mainly set in London, where the protagonist lives, though he occasionally travels elsewhere. His clothes are one of his defining characteristics: he always dresses the same way, in a red shirt, black jacket, and blue jeans. He bought twelve identical outfits after the death of his wife Lillie Connolly on the advice of Inspector Bloch, who was his superior when he worked at Scotland Yard and remains his father figure (Dylan calls him "Old boy") even after Dylan struck out on his own to become a private investigator specializing in the supernatural. Inspector Bloch is one of the principal supporting characters in the series, together with his assistant (or rather, comic relief), Groucho, a punning double of Groucho Marx.
Dylan lives with Groucho at 7 Craven Road in a cluttered apartment with a doorbell that screams. His hobbies include playing the clarinet and constructing model ships; he has many phobias, including bats and heights (Acrophobia). Dylan is also particularly susceptible to motion sickness, which is one of the reasons why he rarely travels. Once an alcoholic, he now almost never drinks. He is a vegetarian. He's also a hopeless romantic who loves and loses a new woman in nearly every issue.

Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a fictional Scottish character, created by Carl Barks, who first appeared in the story "Christmas on Bear Mountain" published in "Dell Comics Four Color Comics" #178 in December 1947. Over the decades, Scrooge has emerged from being just a supporting character of the Donald Duck Universe, spawning his own comic book series, Uncle Scrooge with subsequent appearances in various television specials, films, and video games. The popular 1987 animated series DuckTales follows the adventures of Scrooge, his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck and their life situated in the fictional city, Duckburg.
Scrooge's name is based on the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, a character from Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol". Scrooge, along with several other characters of Duckburg, has enjoyed international popularity, particularly in Europe, and is frequently translated into other languages.
Scrooge is the richest duck in the world, rivaled by Flintheart Glomgold, John D. Rockerduck and, less prominent, the maharaja of the fictional country Howdoyoustan, having worked his way up the financial ladder from humble immigrant roots.
He keeps his wealth in a massive Money Bin overlooking the city of Duckburg. A shrewd businessman and noted tightwad, his hobbies include diving into his money like a dolphin, burrowing through it like a gopher, and throwing coins into the air to feel them fall upon his skull. He is also the richest member of The Billionaires Club of Duckburg, a society which includes the most successful businessmen of the world and allows them to keep connections with each other. Glomgold and Rockerduck are also influential members of the Club. His most prized possesion is his "Number One Dime".