"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated January 26, 1913:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JUNE 21, 2021):
I really enjoyed this strip! The premise was clever and inventive and the organization was not your run-of-the-mill 12 panel grid. - 1/18
Not much actually *happens* here, I'll admit that. The group barely even gets to the stairs of the Candy City (is this where the Candy Kids live?!) before the weather prevents their continuation. - 2/18
I really enjoy the way McCay handles the various weather patterns. The visual depiction of wind is different enough from the visual depiction of rain that you know two different systems are occuring panel to panel. - 3/18
The earthquake, not "weather" perse, creates an opportunity for McCay to tear down his normally brilliant architecture. I love seeing the beauty of the Candy City in snow followed immediately by it coming tumbling down in ruins. - 4/18
The juxtaposition is really fun and is enhanced by the rubble and destruction that we see behind the Candy City, as well. - 5/18
Now, I really like this final panel because I think it is a comment on appearance versus reality. - 6/18
Today, there can be a reading about gentrification in this strip. Whether it was intended (unlikely) or not, McCay has depicted something that resembles the practice here. - 7/18
In an interesting article about Gentrification in America, Suleiman Osman (2016) says that the 1910s saw what could be considered the "seed stage" of gentrification when explicit race-based zoning emerged. - 8/18
So, though the practice hadn't really reached it's apex yet by the 1910/1920s, the groundwork for it was being laid during McCay's lifetime. - 9/18
Coming back to the strip, we witness the gorgeous and vibrant Candy City in stark contrast to the decrepit and old town behind it… Indicative of how gentrification saw traditionally "undesirable" (black) neighbourhoods transformed by an influx of money and economic shifts. - 10/18
Today, we know that gentrification and displacement are intrinsically linked (as cost of living in the neighbourhoods increases, the individuals living there can no longer afford to remain), and one has to wonder what happened to the residents of those old buildings? - 11/18
And what of the fact that it is Impie who pulls the lever (so to speak) and brings down the Candy City revealing what is behind it? His "mischief" could be read as a reformist action. - 12/18
I know this is the application of 21st century reading onto the strip, but I'm ok with that. I doubt that it has any ties to McCay's original intention, and yet it was one of the first things that this strip made me think of. - 13/18
Moving away from this contemporary reading, I want to go back to the first panel and the "Chief" that we meet. - 14/18
This fellow seems to be controlling the weather of at the very least the Candy City, if not all of Slumberland. - 15/18
This makes me wonder about Flip's family. As the son of the sun and the nephew of the Dawn, you'd think that Flip would have a unique relationship with weather (in a way). - 16/18
It is odd to think that someone "controls" his father; forcing it to be sunny with a lever, when Flip himself is so… uncontrollable. - 17/18
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #371. What's yours? - 18/18