"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated November 02, 1913:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JULY 29, 2021):
This strip depicts two pretty classic tropes at this point in the series. First, Impie's mischief, and second, Flip's stubbornness and temper. - 1/12
Honestly, the entire strip boils down to that… Impie plays a prank on Doctor Pill, Flip chastises Impie, Flip ignores the helpful advice provided him, and calamity ensues. - 2/12
I will say that the fact Flip was so quick to come to Doctor Pill's defense here surprised me quite a bit… it's become a trend lately that Flip is much less tolerant of Impie's mischief. - 3/12
Where he used to laugh in the past, he is much more frequently punishing Impie's behaviour now. It seems as though it started around the time he became Police Chief of Lilliput. - 4/12
If Flip is maintaining the mindset of his previous higher status (even if he isn't Chief or Duke of Lilliput anymore), then maybe he's also maintained the idea that he must police Impie more frequently less his behaviour come back on him? - 5/12
I'm interested as to whether anyone else sees this change occurring here and what they think about the whole situation? - 6/12
There is also the element of Flip's temper and stubbornness. The repetition of "drop that fish" coupled with Flip's ignoring the command leads to them being tossed into the water and prolongs Pill's anchoring to the Diplodocus' tail. - 7/12
This allows McCay to depict the Proto-Gertie dino in multiple different poses as Flip swings the fish around. - 8/12
So, I think it serves two purposes here. A) It reinforces Flip's character accurately, B) It provides McCay a chance to practice poses for his Gertie animated feature! Though there might be a third… - 9/12
Impie's trick takes Doctor Pill directly into the drink when the dino dives to fetch the fish… for three straight panels (admittedly, an indeterminate amount of time) Pill is submerged. - 10/12
What eventually drags him out of the water is Flip swinging the fish around… inadvertently, Flip could be said to have saved Pill's life; he's surely have drowned without this intervention! - 11/12
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #407. What's yours? - 12/12