top of page

Day #534: Little Nemo and the Vegetable Incident

"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated September 26, 1926:


Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JANUARY 9, 2022):


I swear to "GOORD" (see what I did there?), this entire strip was written because McCay came up with the joke in panel 4 and wanted to use it. - 1/10

I'm not even going to pretend like it doesn't land… I laughed. Hard. I don't know whether young readers would've found it as funny, but I got a kick out of it! - 2/10

Unfortunately, it was at the expense of Impie, which I'm not very comfortable with. The entire strip is predicated on the harmful racist trope of the Black savage. - 3/10

The strip promotes the post-emancipation racist idea that Black Americans were unfit for civilized society… here, Impie takes a civilized object (vegetable) and uses it for an uncivilized purpose (club). - 4/10

McCay even doubles down on this idea in panel 5 (Impie imagines himself walloping people with the "club") and in panel 7/8 (when Impie takes a swing at Flip). - 5/10

Admittedly, Flip came ready to toss a giant tomato in Impie's face, so he may have just been defending himself, but this could've been handled better… - 6/10

It's entirely possible that (since both characters get arrested at the end) there is also a commentary here about Flip's status as an Irish American? But, either way, the dominant focus is on Impie. - 7/10

All in all, I don't see much else here. The giant vegetables are a bit of a return of whimsy in the strip, but it's a very mundane whimsy (oxymoron?)… - 8/10

Eager to hear what other think about this entry! Please share your thoughts! - 9/10

This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #534. What's yours? - 10/10

bottom of page