 McCay was approached in early 1910 to bring his vaudeville show to Europe . McCay requested the Herald 's permission , but the plans never materialized . His show stayed within the eastern U.S. until he ceased performing in 1917 . Biographer John Canemaker assumed McCay 's request to tour Europe was turned down , and that the refusal added to McCay 's growing frustration with the Herald . A distrust of big business became pronounced in McCay 's work around this time , including a story arc in Little Nemo in which the characters visit a Mars oppressed by a greedy business magnate . 
