"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated September 21, 1913:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JULY 22, 2021):
The colouring of this strip is very off… red, orange, yellow, and brown tones seem to encompass the entire palate used and it creates a strange effect. - 1/16
These colours give off a nice and warm feeling… I'm not sure if it was done intentionally, but it gives off the impact that the area that they find themselves in is a very hot and humid place. - 2/16
I'd be willing to bet that it's just poor colouring, but I can't ignore that it has it's benefits for this particular strip. The group arrives in an exotic place and the temperature is reflected in the colouring? It's not entirely absurd. - 3/16
Beyond that, I'll admit that I had no idea what an "Antediluvian" was before looking it up. The Antediluvian period is, it would seem, the time period "chronicled in the bible between the fall of man and the genesis flood narrative…" (Wikipedia). - 4/16
One of the mythic features of the Antediluvian period is, apparently, myths surrounding large monsters that existed. Some, such as Leviathan, even haveprecedent within the bible itself. - 5/16
It would seem as though the group has stumbled upon an island of these creatures; monsters said to have been created by God at the beginning of creation. - 6/16
Though I couldn't exactly identify the four-winged monster, the sea monster could be either "Tannin" or "Leviathan": - 7/16
Of course, the most recognizable of these creatures is the Brontosaurus… mostly because it looks awfully similar to McCAy's amazing Gertie! - 8/16
We're only a year out from McCay debuting Gertie to the world in 1914 and there's no way that she hadn't been percolating within his mind for even longer… so seeing a proto-Gertie here on the Antediluvian island is really fun! - 9/16
Finally, I'll end by noting that I think the group works together surprisingly well this strip. It begins with the Princess giving a polite thank you to Nemo (and Flip and Impie by default, I believe) for wading in the water since the boat can't fit them all. - 10/16
Of course, this is part of the reason why they are able to run off after the four-winged monster so easily… leaving Pill and the Princess to fend for themselves against the sea monster. - 11/16
The penultimate panel that sees them all huddled together, as Flip runs down the beach with monsters in the background is a good ending. - 12/16
It creates a sense of foreboding and uncertainty that, I think, would encourage readers to come back the following week to see how the narrative continues. - 13/16
I don't want to go as far as saying it's a cliff-hanger (it isn't), but it does set-up the potential for an incoming narrative that might have some interesting mythical allusions. - 14/16
Maybe Nemo's Sunday School was going to be reading some of the Old Testament that week? Who knows? - 15/16
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #401. What’s yours? - 16/16