"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated September 16, 1906:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JULY 15, 2020):
This really is a remarkable strip! Welcome to McCay's masterclass on perspective! - 1/24
As Nemo and crew begin their journey towards the Carnival of Nations, they must first get through a Gauntlet of dangers designed, according to the princess, to keep Flip out of the palace. - 2/24
These dangers are beautifully staged and represent a masterful use of dynamic perspective to guide the reader's eye across the page. - 3/24
Since traditional reading practices begin on the left-side of a page, McCay positions the vanishing point in panels 2 and 3 in the left distance in order to create this brilliant sense of implied motion. - 4/24
As Nemo and the Princess walk towards their goal, our eye imitates their journey from left-to-right. We get a sense of just how long this walk actually is because of the distance implied by the vanishing point. -5/24
When McCay switches tacks in panel 4 and places the vanishing point on the right side of the page, it makes for a really interesting effect; rather than emphasize distance here, McCay instead emphasizes danger. - 6/24
The distance Nemo travels across (the horizon line created by) the rope emphasizes the danger of the fire pit moat, which leads to an interesting shift here. Though the reading is still progressing left to right (along the rope)… - 7/24
…what changes is the vanishing point; by switching it to the right, the largest part of the pit takes up a good chunk of the panel. It's scale becomes greatly emphasized and, coupled with the distance from the opening in the wall, terrifyingly dangerous. - 8/24
This is important because, of course, this is what wakes Nemo up. Nemo fears that his house is on fire because of the intensity of the dream moment, which causes him to awaken and survey his bedroom for flames. - 9/24
Honestly, I love this strip! And though I think that I have an understanding of the artistic principles at play, I would encourage anyone with a firmer grasp on the technological nuance of this drawing to please correct me if I've misspoken or missed something important! - 10/24
Another interesting thing about this strip is it's obsession with repetition. - 11/24
The only truly unique characters in this entire strip are Nemo and the Princess. The Candy's are dupes, the Slumberlandians are dupes, the gauntlet is populated by dupes… It's fascinating. - 12/24
I've been wondering about the "sameness" of the population of Slumberland for some time… how can we read this? - 13/24
The easiest reading would be artistic necessity; McCay was doing so much other fine detailing in these strips that the replicability of certain characters reduced the load slightly. - 14/24
That's fine (and probably quite likely), but I also think there must be a storyworld explanation. For that, I posit that these faces could belong to persons he's met in the waking world being recycled by his unconscious? - 15/24
Again, these could be dismissed as wild guesses, and I suppose I'd accept that, but I'm eager to hear if anyone else has a rationale for the duplication of persons in Slumberland (maybe more textually grounded?)… - 16/24
Now, there are a few linguistic/storyworld things to call out here, as well. - 17/24
For starters, we learn that the gentlemen with the threateningly large swords, ready to cut at a moments notice, have… made a mistake before. - 18/24
Certainly not something that a perpetually fearful young man wants to hear as he walks beneath a row of ten ton concrete blocks… The Princess spends most of her time here trying to calm Nemo's nerves and keep him unafraid of the gauntlet they're walking. - 19/24
Part of her plan is to continue reminding Nemo that this is to protect them from Flip and to keep him OUT of the Carnival of Nations… another reminder that the upper class of Slumberland will spare no expense to exclude Flip. - 20/24
Sure, it's probably justified by claiming that his antics could be embarrassing, but I reiterate that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy… I still think that his behaviour would improve if he were only included more… Maybe we can test that hypothesis someday… 😉 - 21/24
Finally, we get a sense that Nemo is still worried about Flip. Whether he is his enemy or not, Nemo declares "I do hope Flip never tries to get in here" while over the fire pit presumably because he fears what would become of him. - 22/24
This evolution of "fearful Nemo" to a braver and more heroic character is slow-going, but I really like that we're seeing it occur in real-time. I see this episode as maintaining a blend of fearfulness for himself and Flip, which is progress in the right direction! - 23/24
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #49. What's yours? - 24/24
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