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Day #260: Little Nemo Knows His Fire Safety

"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated October 02, 1910:


Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (FEBRUARY 24, 2021):


This strip shows us Industrial America, as we get a pretty up close and personal look at some steel mills and foundries. - 1/10

The gag of this particular strip is that the soot spewed from the smokestacks of this industrial area is so bad, that the airship can't seem to escape it. - 2/10

I'm not sure if there is any intended environmental commentary here or not but, in 2021, I think that there is certainly one to be read. - 3/10

Obviously, environmental protection is significantly different today than it was in the early 1910… this certainly serves as a reminder of how far we've come in that regard over the last 100+ years. - 4/10

Now, much like the natural gas belt stuff from yesterday, I'm not overly familiar with the 19th-Century US steel industry. So I checked out trusty Wikipedia: - 5/10

It mentions that, up until 1911, there was a notable iron furnace in Boonton, New Jersey. As the crew continues towards New York, could they be passing through NJ here? - 6/10

McCay does well playing with the angle of the soot dirtying the beautifully adorned airship. I wondered why they were decking themselves out in flags for their arrival to New York, but it seems it was just to serve the "dirty" angle, I think? - 7/10

Nemo's mother calls him from bed telling him that his bath is ready (a very unique final panel, in my opinion) signalling that his dream about getting dirty is imitating his real life situation (another blurring of the boundary between dream and waking). - 8/10

Maybe Nemo missed his bedtime bath the night before? - 9/10

This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #260. What's yours? - 10/10

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