Alphonse and Gaston

This Sunday comic strip follows two exceedingly polite Frenchmen whose elaborate courtesies create slapstick chaos. Each panel builds gags through visual narrative: the characters bow, gesture, and collide while speech balloons convey their overwrought exchanges. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comics' rapid evolution from single jokes to sequential storytelling. By the 1900s, recurring characters in daily and Sunday pages established the visual vocabulary—panels, word balloons, expression—that would define the medium. Artists developed timing through layout, moving readers' eyes across the page to reveal comedic payoffs. This six-panel Sunday format became the standard vehicle for character-driven humor that entertained millions and formed the foundation of modern comic art.