"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated August 01, 1909:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (DECEMBER 18, 2020):
Welp…by panel 5, we're right back where we started; the earthquake has settled. So, I was sort of right… - 1/11
I say "sort of" because the arrival of the Fairy is a really unexpected moment. It's almost as if she were conjured up by the boys' conversation about wanting to see another person. - 2/11
Clearly the isolation and the craziness of the events are getting to the boys (both Flip and the Professor declare, at some point, that they're going to cry)... - 3/11
…so the Fairy's arrival is quite a relief to them… except for the fact that they aren't allowed to touch her; the visual gag of Flip and the Professor bounding back and forth across the panels/tiers serving as the strip's main gag! - 4/11
Now, we learn that the Fairy has been sent by the Princess to see if Nemo has ended his association with Flip, so we see a really interesting tension between the pictorial and the linguistic here. - 5/11
Obviously, the visual gag is played out for the sake of humour, but the information provided by the Princess is narratively important. Neither one *seems* to be presented with dominance, though the chaos of the visual gag makes the reading of it frantic. - 6/11
It feel right then the most important information comes in the penultimate panel when Flip and the Professor are looking for the Fairy off-panel… they've calmed down, so the information presented linguistically can be more easily processed. - 7/11
Nemo tells the Fairy how he clocked Flip, but now they're friends again and he has promised to be good (even swearing off his ubiquitous cigar). - 8/11
The Fairy says that Flip will need to prove himself and his dedication to being good and promises Nemo will experience some more strange happenings for a while… - 9/11
I don't know about you… but the foreshadowing here is killing me with suspense! I'm really looking forward to what's coming! - 10/11
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #199. What's yours? - 11/11