"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated September 19, 1909:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JANUARY 01, 2021):
First off, Happy New Year everyone! I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who's been following along throughout 2020 and for all the new participants just joining us as we turn over into 2021! - 1/25
This strip marks the end of our Jungleville saga, as our friends finally manage to escape their simian captors! - 2/25
Formally speaking, this is a very dense strip… it features a high panel count and a lot of text, which gives it a "heavy" feel to it. This is off-set by the narrative content, which is quite light actually. - 3/25
I absolutely LOVED the panel sequence from 4-7. Representing sound and music within comics is something that is formally difficult to depict and, as such, has been a pretty standard element of experimentation in comics for quite some time… - 4/25
This solution to the problem is elegant, if not completely functional. Any reader would understand that the staff and musical notes indicate music thereby recognizing there is a tune coming form the hand organ… - 5/25
…, but only one who is musically trained could actually hear the tune. I thought that I would try and help out with that, so I recorded the simple tune and have attached it here so that everyone could hear it! - 6/25
Forgive me... it isn't the best quality. I'm also assuming that the tune is in the Treble clef (McCay doesn't dictate that, but it just makes musical sense). It isn't the greatest recording (I'm not the best piano player), but it serves, I think. - 7/25
Now, I'm also wondering whether or not it was McCay that wrote the little tune for the boys to dance to or not? It's an interesting question; writing music is much different than writing words… and this tune even has 3 flats (added complexity). Hmm… - 8/25
Narratively, the strip begins with the monkeys deciding they will take the boys in separate directions and Flip becomes worried that the boys will never see each other again. - 9/25
Nemo, on the other hand, is confident that this won't happen. This struck me as interesting: Is he confident because he is beginning to realize the power he has in his dreams? - 10/25
That idea is somewhat undercut (or it was for me) in the final panel when he wakes up and remembers he was dreaming, which might indicate that he didn't know he was dreaming during his dream… - 11/25
Alternatively, maybe he is just being strong for his friends… maybe he is just as worried as Flip, but trying to be the one who keeps the group together; as any good leader would. - 12/25
What is ironic about this is possibility is that it isn't Nemo who brings them back together, but Flip… who does so with his cigar. - 13/25
The very thing that Nemo walloped him to stop smoking… the very thing that the Nemo made clear to the Fairy Flip was done with… was what ultimately saved them from their simian captors. - 14/25
This is an interesting cross-strip irony that I don't think we've seen McCay use before… it's really fascinating. I wonder if the strip wasn't being read chronologically (as we're doing) whether or not this little nuance would be recognizable? - 15/25
This points to an interesting cross-textual transaction; you can read this strip in isolation a million times and never catch the irony because, without reading the past strips, it isn't ironic. The context is given by the past events. - 16/25
Sure, this relates substantially to the simpler question of continuity throughout the strips life, which is becoming increasingly tight as the McCay progresses, but this isn't the only time McCay uses this sort of effect in this strip. - 17/25
In panel 15, The Dancing Missionary asks, "is it a Whiffenpoof?". As we've previously discussed, this term originated in the stage production of Herbert's #LittleNemo; it was not in use prior to the musical's staging. - 18/25
If you recall, neither was the DM a character in the Nemo strips prior to the musical; he too originated there. So, for anyone unfamiliar with the musical, this moment, and the term he uses, is meaningless… - 19/25
But to someone familiar with the context of the musical this is a transaction founded upon one's recognition/knowledge of a text that exists outside the confines of the material story we are reading now. - 20/25
The fact that McCay utilizes both a continuity based strip-to-strip meaning making moment and a musical-to-strip meaning making moment fascinates me greatly. - 21/25
As the boys escape, Dr. Pill and the Dancing Missionary appear in the final tier with guns in hand… it seems as though they were looking for the boys… so what were they planning to do with the guns? - 22/25
They didn't know that the boys were in Jungleville (Dr. Pill asks them where they've been in panel 16), so why bring the guns? We shouldn't assume they were headed to Jungleville with ill intents should we? - 23/25
And who is the Simian officer we see running in panel 14? Is he chasing the boys? That panel sort of exists in a strange isolation… I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. - 24/25
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #206. What's yours? - 25/25