"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated November 07, 1926:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JANUARY 15, 2022):
At risk of making some enemies here, I'm going to admit some rather personal business because I think it influenced my reading of this strip today. - 1/13
I find it incredibly coincidental that today's strip is a football focused narrative when today, my favourite football team plays their most important game in 30 years! - 2/13
Those of you who know me personally probably know that I'm a diehard Cincinnati @Bengals fan… today, we play the Raiders in the hopes of snapping a 30-year playoff drought… - 3/13
Obviously, Cincinnati is a city closely associated with Winsor McCay, as well, so combine this with the coincidence of a football themed strip landing on this particular day and I take it as a good omen. - 4/13
Now, to the strip… I actually got a kick out of it today! As a football fan, I've seen many a pile-up (on a fumble, onside kick, etc.) that take minutes to extricate the ball from the mound of players on top of it. - 6/13
For that reason, the premise worked really well for me and I actually laughed out loud at the idea of a crane lifting the players up and having them remain perfectly enmeshed. - 7/13
The exploding football on the other hand felt a bit strange… of course, dream logic is very much in play here so this isn't a complaint so much as it is counter-intuitive. - 8/13
As referee, Flip's job is to get the players off the ball and put the ball back into play… lighting a fire that explodes the ball accomplishes one of those goals (getting the players up), but sort of makes a mess of the other… - 9/13
Of course, maybe Flip doesn't care because there is another ball? Though, my money would be on Flip pretty much ending the football game with these shenanigans because they didn't have a new ball to play with… - 10/13
The explosion itself could also be read as a metaphor for the physical violence of the sport, especially in 1926 (football helmets wouldn't become mandatory in the NFL until 1943). - 11/13
As the bodies fly in the penultimate panel, we're reminded of how much the sport of football requires the use of the human body as projectile. I don't think it's an indictment of the sport, but it's a good representation of it from a dreaming boys perspective. - 12/13
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #540. What's yours? - 13/13
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