"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated September 28,1913:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JULY 23, 2021):
A classic take on animal training, especially early century animal training that relied heavily on dominance and fear-based methods, Flips attempts to train this dino don't go as he planned. - 1/11
Proto-Gertie is kind enough to let them ride him and what does he get for it? He gets walloped by mushrooms… - 2/11
The trouble here is either a) Impie misinterpreted Flip's instructions and twisted his tail a bit too much (this is what Flip believes), or b) Proto-Gertie simply didn't like his tail twisted even slightly. - 3/11
Yes, Impie was the perpetrator, but it isn't like he went and did this out of the blue… he was following instructions from Flip who told him to twist his tail (for whatever reason) in panel 3. - 4/11
While it's true that Flip gets knocked down, Impie is the only one who finds himself in Proto-Gertie's mouth and flung into the mushroom forest in panel 6. - 5/11
Why doesn't Proto-Gertie just start taking it to Flip when he starts whacking him with the mushroom? I don't know… I fully expected him to go angry giraffe and smack him square in the face by swinging his neck at him. But that doesn't happen. - 6/11
The final two tiers of the strip are very repetitive (save from the additional fallen mushrooms)… the group asks to be let off of Proto-Gertie, Flip ignores their requests, P-G gets bonked with the mushroom. - 7/11
I'm reminded of the previous falling mushrooms that we've seen in #LittleNemo (way back in 1905). Though the panel shape doesn't change in response to the collapse the way they did in 1905, it still has an interesting effect. - 8/11
By keeping the panel size the same, the collapse of the forest becomes evident through density as opposed to spatial representation. More and more mushrooms fall making it more difficult to see our group. - 9/11
It was an effective way to present the event, I thought, even if it was far more simplistic than the earlier responsive and productive panel organization. - 10/11
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #402. What's yours? - 11/11