"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated January 19, 1913:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JUNE 20, 2021):
I feel like this strip is a bit of a step backwards in our narrative continuity. It features an intentional prank to remove Flip and Impie from the group, which is something that I thought we'd put to bed (so to speak). - 1/15
Of importance is the fact that we're arriving back to Slumberland for the first time in quite a while now… does Doctor Pill's actions have anything to do with this? Does he feel the need to act this way in close proximity to the King? - 2/15
It does seem as if Morpheus doesn't want them around; panel 10 features him commenting on Pill claiming to have gotten rid of them… maybe it was at his request? - 3/15
The prank itself works narratively, but I didn't get much out of it as a reader. It just sort of fell flat for me. - 4/15
The blue Slumberlandians is interesting. I know the American has introduced a different kind of Slumberlandian than we're used to at the Herald, but these blue guys look so similar to the ones we know. - 5/15
Are they the same ones we knew before? If so, why are they blue? How did they come to be blue? If not, who are they? What is there role in Slumberland? So. Many. Questions! - 6/15
Doctor Figures role in this strip is just for giggles, too. He had no idea what was going on, but became integral to making the joke work. - 7/15
He must be quite the polymath! Arithmetic, Hypnotism, and Sprinting (only an athlete in the peakest shape could keep ahead of that elephant charging at him ;)). - 8/15
The real gag, at least where I got my laugh in this strip, was at the end when Flip asked for the password! The whole ordeal, to him and Impie, must've felt planned and intentional… even though it wasn't. - 9/15
I'll end just by commenting on the fact that Impie was, once again, lumped into Flip's category… We all know that when Flip is spoken about, it means the same for Impie, but we're seeing him be ignored entirely yet again. - 10/15
Again, I'm wondering if this has something to do with the perceived nature of Slumberland? Is it just sort of assumed that Impie is not spoken to while in Slumberland? Is it the farther away we get, the more involved Impie can be? - 11/15
It wouldn't surprise me that Slumberland reflect those segregationist, Jim Crow-era prejudices and I find it at least partly possible that those pressures become less and the less in the more surreal sequences. - 12/15
It would likely be worth going back and looking through other instances of Impie in Slumberland (noting here for data analysis phase) to see if that reading/theory holds up. - 13/15
I would be eager to hear other people's thoughts on this now though! What do all of you think? - 14/15
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #370. What's yours? - 15/15