"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated August 21, 1910:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (FEBRUARY 18, 2021):
Though formally simplistic, this is a narratively imaginative and educationally valuable strip! - 1/14
Again, we see our friends surviving well and perfectly content in the void and vacuum of space without helmets or oxygen… but, like we did before, we're gunna let that go. - 2/14
McCay's stylistic choices for the backgrounds in tiers 1 and 2 are interesting and worth mentioning because they do some interesting communicating. - 3/14
In the top tier, the group is looking for the Earth, which is lost amongst all the other stars, planets, constellations, etc. McCay represents this as a traditional starry galaxy. - 4/14
But, by tier 2, they've zoned in on planet earth, and the traditional scenery of space is replaced by a single colour. This (by necessity) focuses the reader's attention on the same planet that the boys are focused in on: Earth. - 5/14
McCay again plays with the same technique that he used last week as the boys rocketed out of Mars' atmosphere to the ship, but this time with the planet earth. - 6/14
Much as it did last week, it functions well. Though there are some changes (such as the airships placement/angle) this week, the core principle remains the same: temporal progression through visual scale. - 7/14
Now, I was skeptical about the science behind the speed at which the earth is rotating here and the chase that the airship gives the planet… but, as with most science-y stuff, I was wrong. - 8/14
According to research, the Earth's orbital speed around the sun clocks in at a rate of 67,000 mph or 107,000 km/h. So… ya, that's fast. - 9/14
This is a question that I have genuinely never been inclined to ask so learning about it was actually quite fun! Whether the science here is exact or not isn't the point (spoiler alert: it's not; they're helmetless in space). - 10/14
When the group finally does catch-up to the Earth, they land in Africa (presumably) and almost smack dab in the middle of a pride of lions! - 11/14
It's been a while since we've seen a mundane old lion in #LittleNemo (it's been mostly fantastic creatures for almost as long back as I can remember now) and they're sort of a welcome sight. - 12/14
I'm quite pleased to have arrived back on Earth to kick off the Sightseeing Series! I think that we're all going to have a lot of fun with this long (but quite enjoyable) series of strips! - 13/14
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #254. What's yours? - 14/14