"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated October 17, 1909:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JANUARY 5, 2021):
Welp, this is a nightmare... How Nemo sleeps all the way through the night and needs his mother to call on him multiple times to wake him is beyond me… I'd be up in cold sweats if that ugly thing was chasing me in a dream. - 1/12
As predicted, and Nemo rightly points out in panel 1, our friends are not "safe", bur rather on the back of yet another creature… this one, if the Dancing Missionary can be believed, is known as the Pie-Faced Sciatica. - 2/12
The use of the word "sciatica" (according to the Online Etymology Dictionary a late 14th century word), which describes, in the waking world, pain in the hips, back, etc. is interesting… - 3/12
It makes me wonder if Nemo's unconscious mind is just farming words that he's heard in his waking life, but doesn't know the meaning of, and bringing them "to life" in his dreams. - 4/12
This is potentially supported by his panel 2 comment: "An upheaval is some kind of worm, isn't it?". Now, considering the strangeness of the names these creatures possess, Nemo could be forgiven for mistaking it for a creatures name. - 5/12
But, alternatively, it could signal a real lack of understanding regarding the term and, combined with the "sciatica", might support my above reading. Might also be a bit of a stretch, but I'm going with it. - 6/12
Another interesting comment is the DM's suggesting in panel 1 that this "hunting" expedition is really a "research" expedition… I don't know any researchers that take guns on their expeditions, but I don't know any Ethologists, so I'll leave that for the experts… - 7/12
Finally, what causes this creature to… uh… separate? In panel 5, as the smoke of the gunshot appears, the creature has already split apart… does it do this simply in response to perceived danger? - 8/12
And what is with the stitched mouths… these things are horrifying… they remind me, unfortunately, of the "Human Centipede" movie, which, if you haven't seen, please just don’t. - 9/12 [INSERT IMAGE]
Many moons ago, we wondered about Nemo's silence and if it's triggered by fear… here's another example of a strip where he says very little (especially once they *see* this strange creature)… could this be another example? - 10/12
Then again, like I mentioned earlier, he does sleep through the night… - 11/12
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #210. What's yours? -12/12