"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated November 24, 1912:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JUNE 13, 2021):
You'd think that after the lengthy hiatus between the last strip (Nov. 03) and today's strip (Nov. 24), McCay and co. could've done something a little more special than this… - 1/17
Despite the high-stakes of being kidnapped by pirates, this strip doesn't do a ton for me. It isn't *bad* per se, but I just found it underwhelming. - 2/17
Of the whole strip, I think that the top tier is the most interesting to me. First, Nemo is active again (albeit more closely aligned to his traditional worried/frightened self than the brave character we knew by the end of the Herald run). - 3/17
Though Flip is without a doubt commanding/leading the trio, Nemo chimes in with advice and questions as they go. At times though, his personality is highly contradictory. - 4/17
I find it hilarious that he is worried about running out of matches in the dark but has no issue with potentially fighting pirates as they row towards the pirate ship. - 5/17
Second, the light/shadow work done in panel 2 is brilliant; masterful, even. It is a gorgeous panel (3 is good too) and really demonstrates through the heavy blacks the darkness of the cave. - 6/17
Tier two reveals that the Princess and Pill have been captured by pirates that are planning to ransom them back to King Morpheus… if you recall, this isn't the first time we've seen this scenario: - 7/17
This time though, it seems as though a historical pirate, and not a fictional one, is responsible for the kidnapping! - 8/17
William Kidd, the aforementioned Capt. Kidd, was a pirate in the 1600s who died in 1701 after being executed for piratical actions. Prior to reading a bit on his Wikipedia page, I knew nothing about him. - 9/17
It would seem though that the mythology around "buried treasure" seemed to begin with Kidd. I wonder then why that isn't a larger part of the narrative here? - 10/17
I also wonder why McCay makes the pirates out to be buffoons… I mean, a) who leaves their ship unattended, and b) what sort of pirates give up that easily when being threatened by an unseen enemy? - 11/17
That all Flip has to do is call out a threat to them and they release the Princess and Pill is highly anti-climactic in my view… it was a big "womp womp" in what might've been an otherwise fun swashbuckling comic strip! - 12/17
Impie is, yet again, a silent member of the trio. Most notably, Flip chastises him for not helping heft the cannon onto the shore… he calls him "lazy"… but he isn't. - 13/17
Two panels ago, we see that Nemo and Flip have made Impie row the boat out to the ship… even though we don't see the return trip, it tracks that Impie rowed that way back, as well. - 14/17
Is it any wonder that Impie is tired and wants a break? - 15/17
Finally, I wonder if this is the last that we'll see of Capt. Kidd? It seems to tidy and small an appearance to warrant an otherwise big name inclusion… I think he'll be back. - 16/17
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #363. What's yours? - 17/17
Comments