"In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" dated March 15, 1914:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (AUGUST 09, 2021):
No "New Years" themed strip for 1914! Post-Christmas 1913, #LittleNemo takes a hiatus for nearly 3 months before eventually being published again on this date. - 1/20
Truthfully, we need to get used to this… there are many, many hiatuses that cause large gaps between #LittleNemo's publication in 1914. - 2/20
It was around this time that Hearst was becoming more and more focused on McCay's skills as an editorial illustrator… indeed, there aren't that many more strips left to be published at the NY American at all… - 3/20
As we know, the impending ten-year pause in Nemo's publication will be soon upon us; the irregularity with which Nemo was published during 1914 can serve as the preparation for this reality. - 4/20
The strip's narrative sees the group finally return from their travels in Lilliput and Antediluvia to the palace at Slumberland. It's a very welcome return, in my opinion! - 5/20
Of note, is the fact that we see King Morpheus for the first time in AGES! And what an interesting appearance it is… - 6/20
First, one of the things that has always impressed me about King Morpheus is his massive scale. In strips passed, McCay has used scale to represent his godliness, power, and status as monarch. - 7/20 [insert images]
Here though, he seems… proportionately human. He no longer dwarfs the group in any real way… he just looks like a large… man… - 8/20
I'm very curious about this because the scale of Morpheus' depiction has remained even after McCay's move from the NY Herald to the NY American. - 9/20 [insert image]
Admittedly, the scaling has lessened slightly through the years, but this one is dramatic in it's reduction (at least to me). - 10/20
In the moments where he *looks* larger, our perception is impacted by his being in the car and the other characters being out of it. To be fair, that principle is reversed in panel 10 when the Princess and he look the same height because the Princess is on stairs higher than he is. - 11/20
I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but wanted to point it out. - 12/20
Second, is the fact that he continues to have gout… which acts as probably the strongest confirmation of a continuity from the Herald strips to the American strips that we've seen to date. - 13/20
Recall that the first time Morhpeu's gout was mentioned was back in 1910 at the Herald: - 14/20
We've wondered before about whether there was continuity between papers or whether the American was a quasi-reboot… this doesn't disqualify the ladder theory (it could still be counted as a soft reboot), but it acts at the very least to demonstrate a partial connection. - 15/20
I also really like the final tiers layout choice; the tall vertical panels provide the perfect spatial canvas to visualize the story really well. - 16/20
Panel 8 and 9 are especially good. First, we see that Flip's plan to hijack the airship is successful with very little exposition in between (a really nice moment of closure that works super well) and then the anchor grabbing the auto is displayed wonderfully! - 17/20
Really, any time Pill plots Flip and Impie's abandonment I'm glad to see him get his comeuppance… though, I do wonder if this was Pill's plan at all? - 18/20
In panel 8, he suggests that it was Morpheus who had come up with this plot to rid the group of Flip and Impie… all of this after Flip declared (way back in panels 1 and 2) what good friends they were! - 19/20
This is my reading of "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams" #414. What's yours? - 20/20