Alphonse and Gaston

This Sunday strip follows two French characters through an escalating sequence of polite catastrophe. Alphonse and Gaston's excessive courtesy—each insisting the other go first—triggers a domino effect of slapstick disaster across eight panels. The strip exemplifies early comic narrative: recurring characters, visual gags that build momentum across sequence, and speech balloons anchoring dialogue to specific speakers. The dense panel layout and reliance on reader comprehension of sequential action were hallmarks of newspaper Sunday pages that established the visual grammar later adopted by comic books. Simple line work and heavy black areas direct eye movement and emphasize physical comedy, defining the style of early-twentieth-century newspaper cartooning.