"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated August 25, 1907:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (SEPTEMBER 2, 2020):
Remember back in grade school when you would lean your chair back and a mischievous friend would kick the legs and cause the chair to tumble? That's what this strip reminds me of. - 1/14
Obviously, Impy's cane kick is the highlight of this strip, but his physical position in panel 5, leg high in the air, is just brilliant! - 2/14
Honestly, the whole gestural progression from panel 3-5 is wonderful. This strip is sufficiently chaotic that I couldn't take in what was really happening through iconic solidarity. - 3/14
That means that I didn't know Impy was going to kick the cane out from under Flip until he did it (though I enjoyed the clues). It was really effective and, for this reason, I think McCay chose an excellent layout to make this gag land. - 4/14
Now, Flip's reaction is really poor. He's acting as a prime example of "if you can't take it, don't dish it out" and his immediate reaction (solving the problem with violence) irks me. - 5/14
I've spent a lot of time defending Flip because I really like his character, but these strips (which I've never read) are testing my patience with him… seeing Impy cry in panel 8 just sucks. - 6/14
I find the ending of the strip particularly interesting and really like the final panel. - 7/14
Notice, again, Nemo has been silent the entire strip. So, when in the final panel, he says, "I wasn't making noise, mama!", he is 100% telling the truth. He hasn't spoken at all! - 8/14
His mother's retort, "who says you were?" is actually quite funny when we consider this. We've spent so much time talking about Nemo's silence, I thought this was a fun payoff. - 9/14
Another moment I'm interested in is the Princess' comment in panel 7: "Oh! Dear! Will I ever see my dear Papa?". - 10/14
This seems to signal some home sickness in the Princess… maybe the adventures haven't really made her as happy as she might have thought. Foreshadowing? Perhaps… - 11/14
I find her longing comment also quite interesting in light of how frustrated the reader felt years (well, months for us) ago as we were journeying with Nemo to Slumberland for the first time. - 12/14
All of the stops and starts made us wonder if we would ever reach the fabled King and his daughter, but we did, and the Princess will too. - 13/14
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #98. What's yours? - 14/14