Week Three: The Comic Strip/Little Nemo in Slumberland

I'm particularly fond of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland comics. Visually the style is so spot on in how it relates to the content of the piece; the colors, composition, and the overall quality of the images immediately-- at least for me-- evoke the feeling of a dreamlike state. We also see McCay employing some of the concepts of abstraction and simplification of characters and environments that Scott McCloud touches on in his Understanding Comics. The main character, Nemo, is not terribly complex in regards to his visual design, making him easy for viewers to project onto/identify with to some extent. In comparison, the various characters he meets in his dreams are often rendered with more complexity-- a choice likely necessitated out of wanting to emphasize the otherness or outlandishness of these characters, and to push the idea that Nemo has left his known reality and entered Slumberland. McCay also consistently places Nemo in lavish, more complexly done backgrounds, driving home the immersive quality of the environment and, in turn, Nemo and his experience. In contrast we see that when Nemo awakes, his bedroom is considerably simple.

I also think it's worth noting the effectiveness of these choices and Winsor McCay's storytelling in general. As someone reading these comics so many years after they were originally published, I can genuinely say that I find the subject matter, the rendering, and the general visual style compelling. The stories are interesting in the sense that any daydreamer-- child or adult-- can put themselves in the protagonist's shoes, making it relatable to a considerably sized audience. To be able to say that, having been born and raised in dramatically different circumstances than the original readers of the time, and with the greatly expanded choices of media I have had at my disposal, I think is a testament to how engaging Little Nemo in Slumberland is, and why it continues to be relevant and interesting to this day.

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