"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated July 23, 1911:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (APRIL 11, 2021):
This strip marks the final "Little Nemo in Slumberland" strip until 1924 when McCay returns from the "NY American" to the (what will be by his return a newly merged) "Herald Tribune" newspaper. - 1/13
It really isn't anything fancy… the last animal that Nemo shares his magic flower with is a lamb who gets his wool sheared during a beautiful warm day. - 2/13
Though McCay does have a little fun with his final animal choice... This isn't just any sheep… it is Mary's sheep! - 3/13
Panels 5 & 6 reveal (well, at the very least heavily infers…) that this sheep is the famously loyal sheep of Sarah Josepha Hale's "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1830) poem. - 4/13
This is a fun little allusion; I really like seeing the lives of these famous literary characters beyond the borders of their own stories and this was a moment that I wasn't expecting. - 5/13
It did put a big smile on my face when I recognized it! - 6/13
This animal is quite level headed and faces his fears head on with Nemo's help. It reminded me of how much Nemo has grown throughout the last six years of comic strips. - 7/13
Nemo too used to be quite fearful and, especially at the beginning, we saw a boy who was more frequently scared of the Slumberland's surreality than enamoured. - 8/13
That has a long time ago, though, and now Nemo is a much more brave and independent character (even if he hasn't visually aged since the series began). - 9/13
It's also fascinating that this is the only strips in this series where the adult didn't get weirded out by the animal talking… he just goes about his business and actually engages in a conversation with the animal! - 10/13
Sadly, after this strip, young readers had to wait a month before the new series over at Hearst's "NY American" (titled "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams") to begin… thankfully, we don’t! - 11/13
A new journey starts tomorrow! - 12/13
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #302. What's yours? - 13/13
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