Google Logo Winsor McCay Little Nemo celebration: Google doodle celebrates 'Little Nemo' comic

(CNN) -- The doodles that spice up Google's plain white home page keep getting more elaborate.

Web users awoke Monday to find an animated doodle atop Google's search page that commemorates the 107th anniversary of "Little Nemo in Slumberland," a pioneering comic strip by illustrator Winsor McCay. (Again, that's "Little Nemo," kids, not "Finding Nemo.")

A young boy, Nemo was the main character in a series of weekly strips (later called "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams") that appeared in American newspapers early in the last century. The strip focused on Nemo's nightly dreams, which took him on fanciful adventures before he inevitably woke up in the last panel.

Google's doodle begins with Nemo in bed. Users can click on tabs to expand the strip, which adds more animated panels as Nemo falls through a colorful dream world.

The last tab takes users to Google search results for McCay, who also found fame as the creator of such early animated cartoons as "Gertie the Dinosaur." McCay, whose work influenced animators at Disney, died in 1934.

Google has been adding interactive, animated doodles to its home page with more frequency in recent years. Others in 2012 have paid tribute to the London Olympics, Valentine's Day, the 79th anniversary of the first drive-in movie, and Robert Moog, inventor of the electronic synthesizer.