Watch Winsor McCay's The Sinking of the Lusitania, the First Major Animated Propaganda Film (1918)

"You might know Win­sor McCay (1867? ‑1934) for the gor­geous­ly sur­re­al Lit­tle Nemo com­ic strip or for his ear­ly ani­mat­ed short Ger­tie the Dinosaur (1914). But did you know that he also cre­at­ed some of the ear­li­est exam­ples of ani­mat­ed pro­pa­gan­da ever? On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusi­ta­nia was just off the coast of Ire­land, head­ing towards its des­ti­na­tion of Liv­er­pool, when a Ger­man U‑boat attacked the ship with­out warn­ing. Eigh­teen min­utes after two tor­pe­does slammed into the ship, it was under water."

"At the time of the sink­ing, McCay was employed by William Ran­dolph Hearst as an edi­to&r­i­al car­toon­ist. Though McCay was incensed by the attack, Hearst was an iso­la­tion­ist and demand­ed that he draw anti-war car­toons. This grat­ed on the artist more and more until final­ly he decid­ed to fol­low up on his huge­ly suc­cess­ful Ger­tie the Dinosaur by mak­ing The Sink­ing of the Lusi­ta­nia (1918), which you can see above."

"The movie took two years of painstak­ing effort to make and con­sist­ed of over 25,000 drawings-all done by hand and most done by McCay him­self dur­ing his free time after work. Com­pared to oth­er ani­ma­tion done around this time, the film is both stark and seri­ous, lend­ing it the air of a doc­u­men­tary. The piece, which isn't much short­er than the actu­al time it took for the Lusi­ta­nia to sink, gives a blow-by-blow account of the attack."

Winsor McCay produced a serious animated depiction of the RMS Lusitania sinking. The Lusitania was torpedoed on May 7, 1915, and sank within eighteen minutes, prompting international outrage and contributing to the United States entering WWI. McCay worked for William Randolph Hearst but clashed with Hearst's isolationist editorial stance, leading McCay to create The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918). The film required two years of painstaking work and over 25,000 hand drawings, most completed by McCay in his spare time. The film is stark and documentary‑like, offering a blow‑by‑blow account largely viewed from afar.

Read at Open Culture