"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated January 07, 1912:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (APRIL 30, 2021):
This strip is really just amazing. I absolutely love it! A really great way to kick off 1912! - 1/25
It has all the most wonderful hallmarks of Slumberland surreality, features the return of characters that we've yet to see in #InTheLandOfWonderfulDreams, and is just really fun and exciting! - 2/25
For the first time since moving to the NY Americans, #LittleNemo and his friends are at the Slumberland palace ready to have some fun! - 3/25
Doctor Pill even allows Flip entry once he promises to behave himself! He says what we've all been thinking for weeks… just leave him alone and all will be fine. - 4/25
But, of course, Pill can't do that as he uses his pull with the King to pull the rug from under Flip… sort of literally. - 5/25
All that said, this time, Flip doesn't realize that it is Pill's fault when he gets "Razoo'd"… he thinks that he has insulted the king (at least at first)! - 6/25
And what he says to the King is really, REALLY interesting… - 7/25
Flip asks Morpheus why they must sleep. This indicates that Flip does, indeed, sleep (presumably when Nemo is awake), meaning that other Slumberlandians sleep. - 8/25
Now, while Morpheus is undoubtedly King of Slumberland, I've never really considered that Slumberlandians also saw him as a deity… - 9/25
Is he a God-King to them, as well? Or a King to Slumberland and a God to the humans whom he helps get to sleep at night? - 10/25
Both are plausible… the former seems to mesh well with our own human understanding of mythology, but Flip's comment might suggest that the Slumberlandians also worship Morpheus as a god… - 11/25
Now, the Razzoo (a punishment that the Princess decries as harsh) leads to some pretty fun moments! - 12/25
Not least of which is the return of our dear old friend, the sentient moon! - 13/25
He seems to be sleeping (I sense a theme…) with his mouth open as Flip approaches. I wonder if the Razzoo always involves the punished being launched into the mouth of the moon, or if this was just a happy coincidence? - 14/25
It seems more likely that he was intended to be rocketed thousands of billions (Slumberland hyperbole) of miles away not to disturb them again. The only reason he returns to crash into Pill is because the moon spits him back out! - 15/25
As he rockets back down to Slumberland, he seemingly becomes more aware of what might have caused his trouble in the first place… he starts to blame Pill for the misfortune and hopes he lands on him. - 16/25
Which, of course, he does. - 17/25
So, while the feud between Pill and Flip still remains centre stage here, it's really sort of muted. There are more exciting things happening in this strip, so their long standing disdain for each other serves mainly as context. - 18/25
I love the gestural position of the King in the penultimate panel. There is some really neat linguistic-visual collaboration occurring here that I want to point out. - 19/25
I don't know about you, but when I first saw him, I didn't think he was preparing to strike Flip, I thought he was just taken aback by him dropping in through the ceiling… - 20/25
The Princess, though, interpreted that position more menacingly… she begs her father not to strike him. - 21/25
This really reinforces how much the Princess' attitude towards Flip has changed… I think she still sees him as a troublemaker, but also as a friend (or at least someone whom she pities). - 22/25
She didn't want him to receive the Razzoo and now she is trying to protect him from what she reads as a potential threat. What a huge change from the time she tried to busy Nemo so he wouldn't notice Flip was to be executed… - 23/25
There is probably so much more going on here that I'm not even touching on, so I'm excited to hear what you all think about it! - 24/25
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #321. What’s yours? - 25/25