 McCay got " an idea from the Rarebit Fiend to please the little folk " , and in October 1905 the full @-@ page Sunday strip Little Nemo in Slumberland debuted in the Herald . Considered McCay 's masterpiece , its child protagonist had fabulous dreams , interrupted each week with his awakening in the final panel . Nemo 's appearance was based on McCay 's son Robert . McCay experimented with formal aspects of the comics page : he made inventive use of timing and pacing , the size and shape of panels , perspective , and architectural and other details . The Herald was considered to have the highest quality color printing of any newspaper at the time ; its printing staff used the Ben Day process for color , and McCay annotated the Nemo pages with precise color schemes for the printers . 
