"...exotic parades, bizarre circuses, and festivities of all kinds..."

The Annotated "Little Nemo in Nightland"

An installment in The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics.
By David Dodd

Copyright notice; © 1995, David Dodd
"Little Nemo in Nightland"
Title by Robert Hunter; music by Garcia, Weir, Lesh and Bralove

"Little Nemo in Nightland"

Recorded on

Instrumental composition.


Little Nemo

"Little Nemo in Slumberland" was an early comic strip.

Jerry Robinson's The Comics: an Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art has the following to say about the strip:

"A world of magic, dreams, and whimsy, enhanced by a superb craftmanship that some think has not been equaled in the comics since, appeared in 1905: Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay. Each of Nemo's weekly adventures was a story of the dream of a tousle-haired boy of about six that concluded with his waking up or falling out of bed (reminiscent of the back-to-reality ending of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). His dream world was peopled by Flip, a green-faced clown in a plug hat and ermine-collared jacket; a cannibal; a certain Dr. Pill; and a vast array of giants, animals, space creatures, queens, princesses, and policemen. There were sky bombs, wild train and dirigible rides, exotic parades, bizarre circuses, and festivities of all kinds in Byzantine settings and rococo landscapes." (p. 35)

The US Post Office included it in its set of comics stamps issued in 1995.

Image © US Post Office, 1995.


keywords: @comics
First posted: November 28, 1995
Last revised: January 12, 2004