Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice

         I have heard of Little Nemo in Slumberland from art history and the history of illustration but never really took the time to look at more than one page of the comic. I found that reading Little Nemo in the Palace of Ice really made me think more highly of Winsor McCay and his art. I loved how each page is so colorful and has wonderful illustrations of a magical world, the world of Nemo's dreams. I also find it extremely interesting how McCay doesn't use the format we see in comics today which is basically have panels that are smaller and larger and thinner and wider. For Little Nemo, all of the pages stick to a grid format. There are smaller panels and larger panels but if they appear in the same row they are the same size. One of my favorite things about the comic is that McCay ends each page with a panel inserted into the bottom right corner of a larger panel that shows Nemo out of his dream. I love how every time it shows Nemo falling or running into something, etc., Nemo is seen in the last panel as a boy who has fallen out of bed. I like how it ties the dream with reality. Another example of this idea of tying the dream to reality is on one page the snowmen are having a snowball battle while Nemo and his friends are passing them on their way to see Jack frost. On this page Nemo is seen, in one panel, getting hit in the face by one of the snowballs. So in the last panel where Nemo is back on his bed awake, Nemo says "Well! If I didn't think I was hit on the nose! I must be dreaming!"
         As far as the actual story goes about Nemo in the Palace of Ice, I feel it's very fun. It has a surreal feeling like you are in a dream and the events and places are quite entertaing. For example, i love how the Palace of Jack Frost is made out of ice cream and that you have to get there by taking a toboggan and then wear ice skates to actually approach Jack Frost. I find it entertaining that the man named Flip is always complaining that he will bring the sun about and due to this everyone puts up with his nonsense about being cold and whatnot because they are afraid he will melt the Palace.
         Lastly, I love how even though Nemo starts off at this cold palace, how his adventure isn't confined by that. Because he is in a dream constantly he can dream of going anywhere. So in this particular story he proceeds to find himself in the midst of pirates on a ship, then he and the princess are rescued by the Navy, get flipped out of a boat by a whale, ride elephants, get kidnapped by a tribe who wants them for dinner, etc. All in all a very exciting tale to be told through a little boys fantastic dream.