"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated January 09, 1927
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (JANUARY 27, 2022):
Ok, before we get all sad about how this is the very last #LittleNemo strip, let's talk about the giant snowman in the room. - 1/27
Did… did McCay inspire the story of Frosty the Snowman? - 2/27
According to Wikipedia, and all other internet research I could find, 1950 is the earliest anyone spoke about the magical living snowman… surely there was other magical snowmen before Frosty, right? - 3/27
If there was… I couldn't find any (I wondered if maybe Frank L. Baum had snowmen in some of his Oz stories, but it doesn't seem like it…). - 4/27
So, this very well may be (and if anyone has better internet sleuthing skills than I do, please correct me) the first (or one of the first) living snowmen in fiction a whopping 23 years before Frosty came to life! - 5/27
That's really remarkable… in the final ever #LittleNemo comic that he would publish, McCay may have influenced the creation of one of the most beloved Christmas characters of all time. - 6/27
Now, there are clearly differences… there's no magic hat here, which means that it's likely magical snow combined with Flip's wish that brought him to life… but there are also similarities. - 7/27
While Frosty doesn't melt in the 1950s Autry song, he does melt (in a very similar fashion) in the 1969 children's film! Coincidence? Maybe. But I'm not sure… - 8/27
Either way though, I'm really happy that this was the last strip. - 9/27
At first glance, I was a bit bummed. I wanted Nemo to go out with a bang… something strong, meaningful, and enchanting like his first strip in 1905 was. - 10/27
I just… didn't think this strip had it. Then I read it. - 11/27
The living snowman is just so Slumberland that it is really fitting to go out on this note. As we mentioned yesterday, I feel like the last few strips have really brought us back to the roots of the dreamscape and so I really appreciated it continuing here. - 12/27
That said, it might still feel like an unusual send off… until you consider the conversation between Nemo, the Princess, and Pill between panels 9 and 10. - 13/27
In panel 9, Nemo says, "do you want me to tell you something? I think this is a dream!!! I'm dreaming!" The Princess then responds with, "Mercy! Nemo, if you think you are dreaming, why don't you wake up!" - 14/27
Recall that, in the early days, Flip used to wear a hat with the words "Wake Up" on it, which always prompted Nemo to realize he was dreaming and awaken. The fact that Nemo was dreaming, and thereby visiting Slumberland in his sleep, was never in doubt. - 15/27
Yet… here the Princess seems to be surprised by Nemo's revelation. In fact, she tried to use his sleep to their advantage: "We will surely…drown if you don't wake up." - 16/27
So, while this is certainly not the first time that Nemo has recognized the fact that he was (or at the very least posited that he might be) sleeping, I think that it is the first time the Princess has directly acknowledged it. - 17/27
Could this have something to do with why the adventure ends here? Could the Princess' telling Nemo to wake up have broken the magic that allowed him to visit (remember that he was chosen to come to Slumberland as her playmate)? - 18/27
Maybe, unconsciously, the Princess' acknowledgement expelled Nemo with her command to wake up? Severed the tie that bound them as playmates? - 19/27
I'm imagining Nemo going to bed the next Saturday night, excited and ready to visit his friends, and… simply waking up the next morning without having visited… how strange he must've thought that was… - 20/27
I'm imagining the sadness and longing that Nemo might have felt as Saturday after Saturday he went to bed hoping he'd see his friends again, only to wake up without having left the comfort of his sheets… - 21/27
Honestly, I finished reading this strip and felt an immense melancholy… not just because it was over, but because the only reading my mind could create for why it ends here was such a sad one. - 22/27
Sure, it's entirely meaning made up in my own mind… I don't think McCay had my depressing ending in mind (it's more than likely that even though he knew the strip was ending he didn't know *when* and this just happened to be the one it ended with)... - 23/27
…, but I'm also imagining McCay's personal pain and heartbreak as he walked back, hat in hand, to the NY American after his dismissal from the Herald Tribune (having been forced to watch Nemo's revival there flounder and fail) and go back to grinding away editorial cartoons for Hearst. - 24/27
#LittleNemo was always a passion project for McCay… he loved those characters. Sure, he would go on to make others, but none resonate as powerfully as those that he created for Slumberland. - 25/27
Saying goodbye to Nemo and his friends must have been immensely difficult for McCay… I know that it is immensely difficult for me. - 26/27
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #549. What's yours? - 27/27