"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated June 17, 1906:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JULY 2, 2020):
This strip intrigues me… and I'm not fully sure what to make of it (though I will posit a bit of a "left-field" reading at the end of this thread). - 1/27
First, we begin yet again at the end of our strip with Candy announcing to the Princess that Nemo has arrived at the palace only to be woken up, meaning that she must wait another week to see him. - 2/27
I again mention the wonderful temporal dissonance created by the top tier; simultaneously the beginning of our reading, but also the end of the strip. - 3/27
The Princess is presented here in a gorgeous flowing pink gown that demands attention from the reader. It seems almost to be in motion; frozen in a sort of mid-swish. - 4/27
This is the largest dress that the Princess has been seen in to date (I think), which might be explained simply because it seemed so certain that tonight would be the night she finally met Nemo. Maybe she wanted to impress him? - 5/27
Though the long awaited meeting did not occur, and therefore an impression on Nemo couldn't be made, it's hard to see her regal elegance not impressing readers. The moment sure impresses me, anyway! - 6/27
Dr. Pill again is insistent on giving Nemo more drugs/pills/medication (what-have-you), but this time I don't think they are responsible for waking Nemo up… they just don't do anything to help him stay awake. - 7/27
Dr. Pill has now appeared in two strips and its quickly becoming suspect whether his pills actually do any good at all… at best, they seem ineffective (Dr. Pill's tumble into the water wakes Nemo regardless of the pill) and at worst, they cause hallucinations/nightmares. - 8/27
All of this said, it's the coloured lights that I'm most interested in. - 9/27
The three lights (red, green, and blue) seem as though they are coming from lights attached to the façade of the building and streaming out across the water. - 10/27
They remind me of "Drummond Lights" - 11/27
As someone familiar with the stage, I can't help but see them as "spotlights" or "follow spots". To accomplish the colours in stage productions, "gels" would be placed in-front of the bulb. This adds an aura of theatricality to the strip for me. - 12/27
Each one is given equal time to shine; there is no blending of colours here or crossing of the lights in any panels, they're given room to just purely be themselves. - 13/27
It's entirely possible that McCay didn't mean anything at all by the colour choices here, but since I try not to bother too much with what was "intended" and instead explore what I see on the page, I'm going to propose a reading… - 14/27
In moments like these, when colour acts to subtly and metaphorically communicate, I often turn to Patti Bellantoni's "If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die" for assistance. - 15/27 [INSERT IMAGE]
Panel (labelled) 2 is red. Narratively, Dr. Pill has just informed Nemo that he is going to give him another drug. - 16/27
Bellantoni (2005/2013) claims that "red is like visual caffeine" (p. 2) and that it can activate in the viewer/reader anxious feelings. After last week's nightmare in the weird passage, Nemo might be understandably concerned to take more of Dr. Pill's medications. - 17/27
In this way, the red colour of the panel may be viewed as a manifestation of Nemo's anxiety projected onto the comics' space for the reader. - 18/27
Panel (labelled) 3 is green. Bellantoni (2205/2013) says that "green is a really dichotomous color" (p. 160) and that it "can signal both health and vitality or danger and decay" (p. 160). - 19/27
In this way, the green colour of the panel may be viewed as a middle space of uncertainty. That Nemo will take the pill is decided for him; Dr. Pill is approaching with it in hand. How it will impact Nemo (and the strip) is yet to be determined… - 20/27
Panel (labelled) 4 is blue. According to Bellantoni (2005/2013), viewers/readers respond to blue by becoming "passive and introspective" (p. 82). The colour emanates tranquility and "a sense of longing--of something left unfinished" (p. 82). - 21/27
In this way, the blue colour of the panel may be viewed in two ways: 1) The pill isn't dangerous and neither Nemo or the reader need worry about more terrors, 2) In connection with the top tier, Nemo isn't meeting the Princess tonight. - 22/27
I like that what wakes Nemo up isn't something happening to him, but rather Dr. Pill's fall into the water. This reinforces the tranquility that the blue colour that the third panel of that third tier espouses in this reading… - 23/27
It is both a "soft blanket of sadness" (p. 82) because he wakes up without reaching his goal and confirmation that the danger of the pill is behind us because Nemo isn't the one who falls into the water (though he does fall out of bed…). - 24/27
I find it particularly fascinating that in the Taschen print collection, not only is the pictorial content coloured, but the balloons are also coloured: - 25/27 [INSERT IMAGE]
I tried, but couldn't find confirmation regarding which way it was originally printed in the papers of 1906. I think it would be interesting to know, however, as it seems like one or the other was a deliberate choice by McCay. - 26/27
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #36. What's yours? - 27/27