"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated March 21, 1909:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (NOVEMBER 28, 2020):
So, I've actually been waiting to talk about this strip for quite some time… I first encountered it a while back and thought that it would be a good strip through which we could talk about Nemo's maturity. - 1/17
But… I sort of thought it was later than this. - 2/17
This strip portrays a very uncharacteristic Nemo… what gives? - 3/17
Last strip, we had Nemo profess his desire to see the Princess… here he is asking another (unknown) girl on a date. - 4/17
Last strip, we had Nemo profess his fear of the lightning and thunder… here he is claiming to be fearless (bravado, perhaps…). - 5/17
Last strip, we had Nemo wish that he could dream of something besides Flip… is this the realization of that? - 6/17
I mean, that sort of makes sense to me… not only is this strip totally void of the Slumberland characters, but it's tone and feel is also dramatically different… it's quite jarring, actually. - 7/17
Nemo doesn't just seem confident… he seems like an entirely different person… could this be a more waking world look at who Nemo is? - 8/17
I'm imagining that this girl is one of the girls in his class and perhaps he's dreaming of her because he has a little crush? Is this one way that he might go about courting her in the waking world? - 9/17
Alternatively, is this what Nemo perceives to be (at least prior to the house incident) to be a perfect situation to be alone with her? Maybe he and she have an upcoming party that the two will be at? - 10/17
Who among us hasn't had a dream that mirrors an upcoming life experience in this way? The houses getting up and walking towards them (ending the romantic, picturesque walk) might be a reflection of Nemo's fear regarding what could go wrong? - 11/17
Maybe this Nemo is what you get when Flip (if he is simply an extension of Nemo's mind) is integrated into his person… maybe this is not an idealized version of his interaction with a girl, but rather a reflection of Nemo's waking persona? - 12/17
I'm just really unsure of what to make of this characterization… it's such a dramatic shift, that I'm thrown by it. What do you all make of it? - 13/17
There are other formalistic things of interest here. For instance, the productive layout is really cool: As the houses get up onto their legs, the vertical panels increase in height (from second to their tier). - 14/17
I'm also really interested in the coloring choices… the background shifts from green to yellow to orange to red… it's very interesting! - 15/17
While it certainly functions for visual interest, it affects my reading much more than just in that way… it functions to make the homes approach increasingly similar across the third tier as the colors become more symbolic of danger. - 16/17
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #180. What's yours? - 17/17