"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated May 24, 1908:
Transcript of tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (OCTOBER 11, 2020):
Alright, I'm now convinced that McCay is doing this to us on purpose… Yesterday, I wondered if McCay was intentionally trying to drive the reader batty with the same storyline over and over week after week… - 1/12
…and now I'm sure that this is a little bit of a meta-prank he's pulling. In panel 8, Nemo asks "Isn't this enough to make you hopping mad?" and Mary replies, "This makes the fourth week we've been sitting here waiting." - 2/12
The two are literally mirroring my own frustration with this strip. I'm about done with the parade that never ends and want to move onto something else… like Nemo and Mary, the reader is forced to "wait" week in and week out for the next storyline to emerge. - 3/12
Admittedly, this one is at least a little bit more interesting than the repetitiveness of the last couple. Somehow, Nemo loses his magical wish stick and Flip finds it… chaos ensues. - 4/12
I think it's clever to have him mess with his nemesis, Dr. Pill, in the way that he does. Having the majestic horse turn to a donkey is fun and, though I feel for Dr. Pill, it was a pretty good gag comparatively. - 5/12
Having it backfire onto Flip is even funnier in my opinion. We all know that his shenanigans often come back around to bite him… or in this case, kick him haha - 6/12
That Impy somehow gets tangled up in all of this is sad; he really just stands back and reacts to all that’s happening around him. As always, he does his communicating gesturally and his shocked face in panel 3 is quite funny! - 7/12
Though I'm wondering how Flip got the car around the wall after it was tossed over it last strip, a more pressing question is where the elephants went? Did they just dump that massive car full of cash and keep going? - 8/12
Finally, though the doubly donkey kick is funny, I wish we'd seen the wind up for the second kick so it read a little bit better. Obviously, he kicks Pill, comes back down and kicks Flip and Impy in the auto, but we don't get to see the whole gesture. - 9/12
Instead, we're left to fill in the blanks, which I understand is a primary meaning making expectation in comics, but this is a bit TOO much… it just reads a bit awkwardly because of it. - 10/12
It's also pretty damn impressive that the donkey can send the car flying like that… that's one strong donkey. - 11/12
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #137. What's yours? - 12/12
Comments