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Comic strip · original lettering, 1905
Little Nemo in Slumberland: The Giant Turkey
Winsor McCay·New York Herald, 26 November 1905·12 lines
The Thanksgiving page. The house starts shaking at midnight, rises into the air, and it turns out a turkey the size of a city has picked it up in its beak. Nemo falls out, lands in a lake of cranberry sauce, and gets lost in a forest of celery.
Two levels on one page
The speech balloons are short and plain, about A2. The story printed underneath further down is written newspaper English from 1905 and is a good deal harder. Read the balloons first and stop there if that is enough for today. The rest will still be here.
The harder layer
The story printed underneath
The caption under the panels, in small type. It tells the same night in the voice of a newspaper writer who is enjoying himself enormously, and it is where the best words on the page are: a rattle brain, elaborate plans to faint, departed downward. Read the comic first.
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BetaAudio read-along is new, and we’re still fine-tuning the word-by-word timing, so a word may drift now and then.
Along about midnight, Nemo thought he felt the house tremble, but when his Mama, excitedly, called him he was convinced. His Papa was also greatly excited and proceeded to ascertain if possible the cause of the violent shaking, swaying and creaking of their home. Outside, the night was still, yet the house seemed to be floating away in air.
Nemo persuaded his Mama to remain inside the house while Papa was seeking the disturbance on the outside. Their home was slowly but surely ascending skyward, but by what mysterious power Nemo's Papa could not make out. Nemo suggested that it might be some monster giant, but his Papa called him a «rattle brain» and ordered him to pacify his Mama, who was making elaborate plans to faint.
But Nemo's suggestion was a fact, and before he could warn his parents he lost his balance and fell. Although very busy he screamed a farewell, and quickly departed downward. We know he must have felt miserable. The awful fate of his Papa and Mama was his one thought until he landed. Fortunately, a lake of nice springy cranberry sauce recieved him without harm, although he thought little and cared less about his own predicament.
Nemo had never won prizes for feats of swimming, but he managed to get to shore, so awfully exasperated that he broke into tears. His one aim was to find what had become of Papa and Mama, so he plunged into the forest of celery stalks on the banks of the lake. He soon became lost, however, and began bawling, until his Grandpa came in and quieted him.
Words light up as they are read aloud. Tap any word to see what it means and add it to your vocabulary list.
About this page
Thanksgiving, 26 November 1905, and McCay is doing the holiday dinner from the turkey’s point of view: the bird is the size of a city, the lake is cranberry sauce, the forest is celery. The circle in the middle of the page is the thing to look at. He drops the panel border altogether and draws one enormous round picture with the whole city inside it, and the rest of the page arranges itself around the circle in strips. Nothing in newspaper comics looked like this in 1905, and not much does now.
Scanned page from the Internet Archive, marked Public Domain Mark 1.0. Published 1905, so copyright has expired everywhere.
Check what you remember
5 quick questions about the page. Scroll up to re-read any time.
Question 1
What does Nemo say is lifting the house?
Question 2
What does Papa call Nemo for saying it?
Question 3
What does Nemo land in when he falls?
Question 4
The caption says Mama was making elaborate plans to faint. The joke is that
Question 5
How does the dream end?
0 of 5 answered
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