"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated June 09, 1912:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (MAY 20, 2021):
This strip continues the recent trend of remixing/merging two nursery rhymes into one narrative (though this one is a little more disjunct then the last two). - 1/20
Really, the only thing that connects the nursery rhymes to one another *and* the overall narrative is a joint interest in… pies… - 2/20
The first tier feels like a totally different comic strip; almost like a prelude. Sure, the Princess & Doctor Pill discuss the impending events of the coming tiers, and the pie is a recurring feature, but these panels aren't integral to the events that follow. - 3/20
Indeed, it really just serves to make Impie look bad… Not only does Impie steal the pie, but he steals it from the hands of a young white boy… - 4/20
The little boy, "Little Jack Horner", doesn't have time to stick in his thumb before the pie is gone and Impie is off and running while shoving it into his mouth… - 5/20
I was really displeased with the "good/bad" depiction here… If LJH is a "good boy" (like the nursery rhyme says) than by Impie's theft of the pie, he must be a "bad boy"? - 6/20
For a young child reader, this sort of event reinforces harmful racial ideas that they may have been noticing elsewhere. In particular, the idea that Black Americans were unfit to live in White society (a falsehood that *most* racial caricature of the time was suggesting…). - 7/20
If it was more integral to the narrative, maybe I would be less critical (maybe), but as it stands, it really is a useless three-panel sequence that could (and should) have been left out. - 8/20
The three tiers that follow are based largely on the well-known English nursery rhyme of uncertain origin, "Sing a Song of Sixpence": - 9/20
This king, who has taken a liking to the nursery rhyme's strange blackbird pies, is waiting to be served with the rest of our friends (minus Flip and Impie) when we learn that the pie has been stolen. - 10/20
I suppose the argument could be made that the top tier was meant to prepare us for this moment… we're meant (I think) to immediately believe that it was Impie that stole the pie. - 11/20
That said, it doesn't come as a surprise when we learn that Flip is also involved. The pie is MASSIVE and the two of them need to carry it together in order to move it (with Flip yelling at Impie that he is the "laziest kid" he's ever seen). - 12/20
The rest of the strip moves quickly and a lot happens all at once. The chaos is fairly well managed as the live lobsters emerge from the pie and start snapping away at Flip and Impie. - 13/20
Of course, only Impie is ever shown in any pain (which, again, maintains the harmful pickaninny caricature where black children are frequently mistreated). - 14/20
Notice how in panel 10 and 11, though the lobsters are swarming/latching with their claws, there is no expressions of pain on Flip's face. The only pain is on Impie's face in panel 9. - 15/20
Doctor Pill, of course, gets quite the laugh out of this as he guffaws at their misfortune in the background. - 16/20
It's funny that he's taking the "high ground" here when only moments ago he was going to eat a stolen pie… he is maddeningly hypocritical sometimes and his moods/feelings change with the wind… - 17/20
I'll admit that this isn't a favourite strip of mine… I read a lot of subtle racism in this strip and (maybe because it seems innocuous) I'm pretty turned off by it. - 18/20
I also don't understand the lobster gag… why lobsters? Is there a reason or is it just because lobster claw's snap? It could have been any animal in there, couldn't it? Am I missing a nursery rhyme connection here? - 19/20
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #340. What's yours? - 20/20