"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated October 24, 1909:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JANUARY 6, 2021):
So, I actually really like this strip… like a lot. It's funny and adorable all at the same time! - 1/15
Nemo and the boys have decided to tag along with Doctor Pill and the Dancing Missionary as they make their way back from their expedition to the palace of Slumberland. Aside from the fact that their escorts are bumbling buffoons, this makes perfect sense. - 2/15
As they journey, regular old waking world animals start to appear in DROVES… first a bird, rabbit, and squirrel, but soon deer, geese, and foxes join in… and a lot of them. - 3/15
This is a) frustrating for the boys who are having a difficult time walking through the ever increasing number of animals and b) symbolic of DP and DM's ineptitude as hunters… they wasted all their ammo and now are missing out on all this game, as a result. - 4/15
Flip points this out in the penultimate panel when he says, "I've seen bum hunters in my day, but you two take the prize!". - 5/15
But, I'm not so sure that Flip understands what's going on here… which is part of why I find this strip so great. - 6/15
These are everyday, simplistic, waking world creatures, not the imaginative, strange, and mythical beasts of Slumberland… what do DP and DM care about them for? - 7/15
Also, Flip forgets that they were on this mission, according to DP last strip, for purposes of *research*… maybe they have no interest in researching these basic creatures they already know about? - 8/15
This makes their methodical, and seemingly unimpeded, progress through the claustrophobic, animal filled panels really quite funny! All the craziness going on around them, and they couldn't care less! - 9/15
As each panel becomes more and more jam-packed with animals, the two continue talking about their absurd gun types… triggerless and hammerless guns, square bullets… hell, square guns! The absurdity mounts with each new panel! - 10/15
The real magic of this strip is the way that McCay loads the panel content with animals little by little… While the boys recognize the chaos (particularly in the penultimate panel), DP and the DM don't even register it. The juxtaposition is really well done. - 11/15
The visual is also quite something… two men walking with two big barreled guns, surrounded by wild game, seemingly uninterested in doing anything… even beyond the narrative (which may, or may not, provide a reason depending on your interpretation) is pretty great. - 12/15
In the end, this is a successfully strip that plays with formalism in an interesting way by spatio-visually communicating humour through the panel content, embracing absurdity through text, and providing competing visuals that tie it all together. - 13/15
Hands down, this is my favourite strip in this particular series and it works really well (almost clearing my memory of the laziness with which McCay represented the large pink fella's scale two strips ago). - 14/15
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #211. What's yours? - 15/15
Commenti