"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated March 03, 1907:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (AUGUST 8, 2020):
Though not perfectly traditional, this is a much more basic spatial design than we’ve been getting recently. That said, it works… ok, I guess. - 1/14
I think I would've liked something that more affectively demonstrated the massive structure that the pair are climbing… We are given linguistic evidence of it's grandiloquent stature, but the visual accompanying it leaves much to the imagination. - 2/14
This is particularly true because, after only 4 short panels, they reach the top (1,000 ft up)… Again, recalling the 1,000 miles travelled in 2 minutes in the toboggan, I suppose this is possible, but it fails to accentuate the point McCay is making about the North Pole. - 3/14
Ultimately, we get a travel time of 5 panels (from base to top)… without any real temporal indication of the length of time it's taken for them to reach the top, it just seems like a short little bout of cardio up the spiral staircase… - 4/14
Though probably unfair to judge the strip based on my personal formal expectations, it seems like this was a missed opportunity from one of the earliest formal experimenters to really try something provocative! - 5/14
Now, the idea of a physical "North Pole" is sort of fun… I mean, we've probably all seen the red and white stripped pole depicted in pop culture before, but I've never seen one quite like this (to my memory, anyway). - 6/14 [INSERT IMAGE]
More often than not, the North Pole is the place where Santa's workshop is located. For obvious reasons, I always think of it as a geographical location, not as an object. Which is why I enjoyed seeing it's depiction here. - 7/14
It's representation as a tall tower/horn that blows frigid air to chill the falling water that spews from it's upper pipes is interesting and to think that the horns have enough power to blow snow all over Slumberland is very "magical". - 8/14
So, for me, what this strip lacks in formal innovation it almost makes up for in whimsy. - 9/14
I do find it somewhat awkward to see the Princess and Nemo alone again after the meaningful chemistry that has built-up with Flip in the mix. They seem… a bit unnatural together now. The small talk reads (to me) like two people on a first date talking about the weather… - 10/14
C'mon! This is the REAL North Pole we're seeing here! Sure, it's cold! Sure, it's a hard climb! But where is the excitement! Where is the "Wow, this is going to be so worth it, I bet!"… It almost seems as if the energy and joy left the building when Flip did… - 11/14
The strip also doesn't really amount to anything… there is no fall or wake-up gag (in fact, it's possible that Nemo doesn't even wake up at all; his mother talks to herself as she recovers him) it just ends with them slowly walking down the ice steps. - 12/14
It's a catch-22 that the pair are put in at this point. Rush down the stairs? Fall and break their necks. Slowly descend? Freeze to death… however do they escape this situation? We will never know. - 13/14
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #73. What's yours? - 14/14