Krazy Konfusing

Well I must say, I've always heard of this "Windsor McKay" (hell of a name, huh?), and his "Little Nemo", but I'd never actually gotten a chance to read any. I've seen the cover of the animated film based on the series, but that'd been about it up until just now. Conceptually, I love it. As a child I was a huge fan of the show "Rugrats", which normally involved the imaginations of the infant characters running wild and mingling with reality -- clearly there's a similarity with Little Nemo, though you have to add in the context of dreaming. When you think about Nemo's situation realistically, though, I've just got to say that I feel so, so sorry for him. Nearly dying in your sleep on a nightly basis? Waking up your no-doubt furious parents so often that you'd probably have to endure several scoldings? Perhaps even be sent to a psychiatrist for your chronic night terrors? Count me out.

From an analytical standpoint, I've got one hang-up: the fact that there are speech bubbles in each panel, but also a narration of each panel at the bottom. Now we've all seen this before; normally this narration is used to provide context to what we're about to see ("Superman arrives at the bank and spots the crooks... with Dr. Mathews as a hostage!") or tie two scenes together ("Meanwhile, at the Fortress of Solitude..."), but rarely have I seen narration describing exactly what the visuals are already showing me in every single panel. It can get a bit difficult to read, too, as sentences will be cut in half between panels, often ending on "and" or "to, and that just makes me want to continue right on to the next scene without actually looking at the image yet. Contrarily, when I tried to read just the images, I felt compelled to double-check the narration to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Every time, I realized I'd already seen what I'd just read, and when I continue reading just to double back and take in the illustrations, I realized I'd already read what I'd just seen.

This strange back-and-forth process didn't affect my enjoyment of the piece, strangely enough (as I usually loathe repetition), so... I really can't knock it. Somehow, it works. Maybe it's because it meshes so well with the surreal "wait... what just happened?" kind of feeling you get when dreaming.

Now then, pertaining to the title of this post: Krazy Kat is weird. I also like it. Weird, though.

Goodnight.

-Will A.