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Day #181: Flip Lands in for Dinner

"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated March 28, 1909:


Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (NOVEMBER 29, 2020):


Welp, whatever was going on last strip with Nemo is completely forgotten by the following week! Welcome back to the palace, everyone! - 1/15

That uncharacteristic Nemo is nowhere to be seen here… today, we see Nemo happy to be with the Princess and see all of his friends again! - 2/15

As should probably be expected by now, the Princess and all of the other Slumberlandians each complain about Flip's nuisance and state how happy they are that Nemo's arrived without him! - 3/15

When Flip does arrive, he states (for the first time?) his disappointment in Nemo that he'd be so willing to abandon him… not that it matters much ultimately. - 4/15

The Slumberland guards stuff Flip into a cannon and launch him through Nemo's parents' skylight and right into their dinner table! That is… as Nemo might say… "quite rough". - 5/15

Let's talk about that comment in panel 1… is it a defense of Flip, as in, "Morhpeus is quite rough in his assessment" or "Yes, Flip is indeed quite rough"? - 6/15

The fact that it is so open-ended, or can be interpreted in multiple ways, is interesting to me and I'd think it was quite intentional (but there really is no way of knowing…). - 7/15

Also, the Dancing Missionary has just sort of appeared in Slumberland post-kick off of the Broadway production… which may have made no sense to anyone who hadn't seen it/known about it. - 8/15

We're only able to decipher this fellow's presence because we have the benefit of historical insight… we know where he comes from, but contemporaries wouldn't. I wonder for how many his presence was inexplainable? - 9/15

There seems to be a lot of poor lettering in this strip, from spelling mistakes to words that are just illegible (what does the Princess call Flip in panel 8… you green-faced ?), but that top tier polyptych makes up for it. - 10/15

I'm in love with it. The way that the implied motion across the courtyard seamlessly presents a united depiction of the palace grounds across the four panels… it's beautiful! - 11/15

The second tier, also a polyptych, is fine, but much less impressive. Though the architectural detail in the background is stunning, the foregrounded promenade is much less carefully detailed and has flaws that disrupt the flow a bit. - 12/15

The bodies of the guards and the spindles in the guardrail stand out in particular for me. - 13/15

That said, this strip is like a breath of fresh air following the bizarre (not in a bad way, just… strange) strip last week. This is a much more comfortable space filled with familiar faces… and I wonder if that was part of the point? - 14/15

This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #181. What's yours? - 15/15

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