Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo was a very different read. It was kind of weird and not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. With a name like Little Nemo I thought it would be a cuter comic but discovered it was far from what I imagined. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t horrible, and some things about it I would consider cute. The character Little Nemo was very cute when in his bed being threatened by his parents to wake up. Honestly those tiny little pieces at the bottom right corner of every other page were my favorite parts. I think this is because there was just too much going on in the gigantic dream sequences. Every time Nemo fell asleep and delved back into his dream state, the character Flip was messing something up. The dream Nemo and his friend, the Princess, just stood there and complained about everything Flip did while everything turned to chaos. It looks to me that this comic book is probably a very early example of the genre and I understand why the story may seem repetitive and juvenile. It’s very simplistic with its structuring yet highly detailed with the events that unfold. This is most likely because these types of comic books where most likely for children only. This comic doesn’t seem like something a young adult would be interested in. I appreciate things from the past that were some what firsts of their time, but now that we have so many new and amazing options, Little Nemo is just that: a thing of the past. I do applaud the author though, and recommend anyone to read this comic if they’re interested in comic history. People should always know about the earlier works of the genre they’re interested in pursuing. Getting back to the story, I found it a little difficult to read the words in the bubbles. They seemed smashed in there and the dialect of the characters slowed me down a bit. The art was very colorful and the drawings were okay. I personally like comics very clean and refined, more like The Arrival’s. I thought it was a bit racist with the barbarian child being a black kid with clown makeup on with a cannibalistic appetite. When he did something wrong he was referred to with demeaning names and was viewed as stupid and unable to learn. Well, that’s the early 19^th century for ya’. Overall I give in a C.