"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated September 23, 1906:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JULY 16, 2020):
Before we talk about the strip, I just want to say a huge #ThankYou to everyone! We've made it to 50 days and that is worth celebrating!! - 1/20
This strip is another really fun one that plays with single-point perspective in a neat way but, this time, McCay really amps it up by incorporating scale and gestural motion into the design! - 2/20
Our big friend, Jumbo the elephant, starts in the distance atop the stairs… it's a quasi single-point perspective design that reinforces exactly how far away Jumbo is to begin the strip. - 3/20
From panel 3-6, Jumbo gets ever closer with each progressing panel and, as he does, he gets increasingly larger in relation to our minute hero and Princess! - 4/20
As a purely visual affect, this does many cool things at once. It a) enhances the impact of implied gestural motion through b) the affect of Jumbo's size as he descends the stairs (larger and closer), while also c) demonstrating powerful use of single-point perspective. - 5/20
This playfulness really makes this strip stand out and the incredibly long vertical panels help to achieve much of it. We've seen many panel designs so far in #LittleNemo, but these ones stand out to me as unique. - 6/20
It isn't the first time that McCay has done long and slender vertical panel design, but they are used to brilliant effect here. - 7/20
In particular, I love how they implicate the reader in Jumbo's descent. As opposed to traditional left-to-right reading, here you have to read DOWN first (then left-to-right). - 8/20
This means that, with every reading of the panel, the readers' eyes are almost LEADING Jumbo to Nemo and the Princess. It has a tremendous impact on me as a reader and acts as the centrepiece that brings together all of what this strip accomplishes! - 9/20
Though this is, in my opinion, the most meaningful aesthetic contribution of this strip, there are some other things to mention, as well. - 10/20
The top tier (panel 1) is really interesting because it represents intra-panel temporality in neat ways. - 11/20
The bustle of Slumberlandians are probably NOT waiting for their turn to speak; I'd suggest that it's pretty reasonable that much of the dialogue occurring at the same time causing a verbal overlap… - 12/20
…but the reader can’t read the dialogue any way other then sequentially, which creates a temporal dissonance. - 13/20
There's nothing *wrong* with this dissonance; it's a natural occurrence in multi-conversational panels. Speaking functions within the logic of TIME and comics functions within the logic of SPACE. - 14/20
Most times, this dissonance isn't overly noticeable (though it is *always* present in comics with words), but it's heightened when a panel presents many overlapping conversations versus a single one. - 15/20
When you know how to manipulate the dissonance to your advantage, it can be used rather effectively! Here, McCay does just that; the panel gives off a frenetic energy as a result of the competing comments as represented through multiple balloons across space. - 16/20
When taken together, you get one of the most formally brilliant strips that we've seen thus far! - 17/20
Sure, we don't get much plot wise; Nemo is, yet again, scared of something and therefore wakes up… pretty standard. For this reason, purely efferent readings (for plot, character, etc.) might lead one to be pretty bummed by this installment. - 18/20
But, if approached aesthetically, there is just so much brilliance here to discuss! - 19/20
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #50. What's yours? - 20/20