From the exhibition
Ain't Men the Wretches?
· February 18, 1906

A six-panel Sunday comic exploring marital discord through the conversation between two couples. Mr. Outblow complains to his friend Mr. Snooks about his wife's spending habits; Mrs. Snooks responds with a pointed monologue about men's failings, delivering her verdict with exasperation. The strip employs the standard visual vocabulary of early newspaper comics: consistent character design, sequential panel arrangement, and dialogue balloons carrying both humor and social commentary. This format—serialized in Sunday editions and dailies—established the visual and narrative grammar that would define the emerging medium of comic strips and eventually the comic book itself.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain