Little Nemo in Slumberland

Little Nemo Sunday page: a page boy invites Nemo to Slumberland, Nemo rides a spotted pony through the starry sky and falls out of bed.

Nemo has just fallen asleep when an Oomp appears: King Morpheus of Slumberland invites him to the palace and has sent Somnus, a gentle spotted night pony. "You mustn't whip him or drive him fast," he warns. But a green kangaroo challenges Nemo to a race to Moontown; Somnus bolts among strange creatures, stumbles on a star, and Nemo falls, and falls, and falls… until he wakes up on his bedroom floor.

Nemo follows a guide in a harlequin suit through a forest of giant mushrooms; the mushrooms topple onto him and he wakes beside his father.

The bed trembles and the floor opens: a guide in a harlequin suit has come to take Nemo to the king. The way runs through a forest of enormous mushrooms. "Don't touch any of them, they are very tender." Tired, Nemo leans on one, and the whole forest goes down like dominoes. He wakes up shouting, and his papa calms him.

A clown lends Nemo stilts; he walks high among long-legged birds, gets tangled and falls; his mother finds him on the floor.

A sleepy clown has an idea: stilts! On them Nemo will reach Slumberland sooner. Up and up he goes, above the trees, among long-legged birds that crowd round him, curious. Legs and stilts get tangled, Nemo wobbles and falls… and wakes beside his bed, with mama promising no more pancakes before bedtime.

Nemo's bed floats out to sea, sinks among huge fish, and the giant Magoozla grabs him; he wakes in his room with his mother.

A voice calls Nemo and the room floods: the bed sails like a boat out to the open sea. Nemo hasn't learned to swim yet, so he clings to a whale and dives among astonishing fish. At last he comes before the Magoozla, who grabs him to carry him to a grand reception at the palace, where the princesses are waiting. Nemo yells until he wakes his mama: "You should not have eaten that huckleberry pie at bedtime."

A fairy guides Nemo across an enchanted bridge held up by hundreds of figures; the bridge wobbles and Nemo wakes.

A fairy with gauzy wings invites Nemo to cross an enchanted bridge, carpeted with coloured ovals and held up by thousands of King Morpheus's servants. "Go straight ahead, don't stop." Nemo strides on bravely, but a mischievous monkey leaps onto the bridge, the sections pull apart and everything begins to wobble. Nemo calls for his mama and papa and wakes up safe.

In a glass palace Nemo meets little Queen Crystalette; when he touches her, all the glass shatters and he wakes.

Nemo reaches a city where everything is made of glass, and meets little Queen Crystalette, as fragile as glass herself. He is warned not to touch her, but she offers him her hand to show him her kingdom. At his touch the whole palace dissolves into a shower of glittering splinters. Nemo wakes in his bed, the ring of the glass still in his ears.

Winsor McCay, 1905. The first six Sunday pages, from the Internet Archive. Public domain.

Little Nemo in Slumberland

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