Little Nemo on the Freedom Trail

As the summer tourism season begins, the blog Armagideon Time reminds us that Boston has long been a choice destination for the eccentric and the little. Little Nemo in Slumberland, Winsor McCay's masterpiece of proto-surrealist storytelling, landed in Boston once, for the duration of one 1911 page. Little Nemo and crew checked out the sights, got acquainted with the "Pee Tree," and mistreated their racist caricature of a friend.

But, as Armagideon Time points out, the strip got a couple of things wrong about Boston:

The next stop on the itinerary is the Old South Meeting House on Washington Street, which is neither the Old South Church nor the location where the "one if by land, two if by sea" lanterns associated with Revere's ride were hung. (That happened at the Old North Church. I have no idea why you outsiders get so confused when you ask for directions.)

On the other hand, the blog's astute analysis overlooks all the things that the strip gets right about Boston, namely a know-it-all passerby who won't let Nemo and crew leave until they have seen every freaking thing in our Hub of the Universe:

Details of the 01/08/1911 Little Nemo in Slumberland taken from Comic Strip Library, in the public domain.