Dave in Slumberland
June 5, 2011 ~ 7 Comments
Another New Year’s Slumberland strip! These were so much fun to draw. The top panel is based on Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo strip for May 27, 1906. Most of the rest of the art is from the strip for March 8, 1908. As usual, Mell appears as Flip; there was a running gag early in Little Nemo where Flip wore a hat with WAKE UP printed on it, and every time Nemo saw it he had to wake up. The colors came out more saturated than I’d like, but oh well, the pink striped walls are pretty great.
BIG OLD SPOILERS: As usual, the New Year’s strip foreshadows the action for the next year. In this case, it’s all about Dave’s latent mad genius. The Dave in the nightdress is his conscious self; the other one is the real Dave, whom we don’t see until the end of Narbonic. At this point in the strip, we’re inching closer and closer to the revelation of all this at the end of “Lovelace Affair.”
Zombie races. That can’t be pleasant to watch.
Shaenon, I love all the Dave in Slumberland strips, and I think the hyper-saturation adds to the dreamlike quality (though perhaps more a David Lynch dream than a Winsor McCay one).
tune: “Big girls don’t cry,” Stacy Ferguson & Toby Gad (Fergie, The Dutchess, 2006)
No, no, no, no
You woke me up from an unsettling dream last night
I have to go, but I when I’m with you, it feels right
Don’t understand, are there some clues that I’ve missed?
Am I myself? Am I a mad scientist?
This tale has a twist
I need to know, I need to know
Should I run to—or away from—you?
I feel so torn. Myself and I,
We’ve got some figuring out to do
And I know I love you even while I’m distracted by a
Fruitless flirtation with Lovelace
It’s time to be a big boy now
And big boys go mad
Go mad, go mad, go mad
I just love these foreshadowing Nemos.
PS- Shamble for the Cure™.
(TUNE: “Good Morning, Good Morning”, The Beatles)
Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave!
Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave!
Wake up Dave!
Run down the hall, I’m searching all
Through the palace!
Meeting my twin, he’s starting in
Threats of malice!
Doesn’t it seem
More than a dream?
Dave, for evilness’ sake,
It’s time to wake!
Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave!
In hat and cape, I stare, agape,
At my double!
He says, “You see, there’s going to be
Lots of trouble!”
I’m searching all the day and night
Although the colors are too bright!
I’m searching all the nignt and day
‘Cause it’s a pastiche of McKay!
Dave is asleep, he’s got to keep
On the get-go!
He’s searching for the corridor
That will let go!
Oh, what a trip!
There’s Mell as Flip!
And she’s wearing a hat,
Now look at that!
Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave!
Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave! Wake up Dave!
Hee, “ever so mad.”
I must admit I never realized they were foreshadowing until I looked at them again after the end.
That is one seriously horrific pun.
This one rather gave me chills when I re-read it, with the foreshadowing. And yes, I just thought they were great Windsor McCay tributes until after the first read-through.