"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated June 16, 1907:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (AUGUST 23, 2020):
Well, between this one and strip #86 (June 02, 1907), I'm not sure which is more offensive… probably this one. - 1/13
It takes the previously playful (?) version of this strip's gag (#83: May 12, 1907) and makes it vicious and unnerving. Notice both the grimaces of the cannibals in panel 6 and the much darker colour of their skin (compared to the other imps) throughout. - 2/13
This strip is the final realization of the fear that this series' particular depiction of the Jungle imps as "Other" (un)consciously promotes: that the savages will kidnap white children and ritualize them as sacrifices for their subhuman practices. - 3/13
The critique that I applied to #83 applies to this strip, as well (post-emancipation depiction of Black people as "bestial" that fueled White fear about the threat of the "Black menace" (Riggs, 1987)), but it is amplified by the kidnapping and chase. - 4/13
The (white) Slumberlandians, who are dressed entirely in white (coincidence? I think not), arrive just in time to act as saviours for the trio by giving chase to the cannibals, spoiling their insidious intent. - 5/13
Unsurprisingly, the White people are depicted as the "good guys" (heroic) who must save/protect White children from the Black savages (villainous)… - 6/13
The strip promotes (intentionally or not) children's fear of Black "others" as dangerous and intent to do them harm. That this was an all-too common way to depict Black people during the early 20th Century, speaks further to the racism that plagued the time. - 7/13
What's worse is that when read in conjunction with the series (particularly #83), it suggests that the playful and seemingly unthreatening imps are no better than the kidnapping cannibals; they both wanted to eat one or more of the trio at some point. - 8/13
The subliminal message here is that White children should fear *all* Black people that they meet because, outwardly threatening or not, they are all the same and all wish them harm. A truly distasteful notion. - 9/13
As many of the strips from this series, this one (as an artefact of the socio-historic moment) should be challenged for it's complicity in the promotion of generational racism by being included in Anti-Discrimination comics pedagogical practices today. - 10/13
There are other elements of this strip that would normally be worth discussing (i.e. Flip's seeming heroism in panel 2, Nemo's stated unhappiness with the Candy Islands in panel 1, the macabre joke that ends the strip), but, as with the others, it simply isn't worth it. - 11/13
There continues to be tremendous value in this strip as a socio-historic artefact, but (at least for this reader) little to none as a text. - 12/13
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #88. What's yours? - 13/13