Behave Yourself!

A Sunday newspaper comic strip built on visual gags and social etiquette humor. The strip follows a simple premise: misunderstandings and misbehavior in urban settings—a crowded dance hall, an elevator encounter, a dinner party violation. The artist uses the panel grid to establish scene, escalate chaos, and deliver a punchline. Speech balloons carry dialogue and comic timing. Recurring character types (the fussy host, the oblivious guest, the scandalized observer) anchor the humor in recognizable social friction. This strip exemplifies the visual grammar that newspaper comics pioneered in the 1920s: sequential panels, expressive line work, and timing built into layout. Such Sunday pages and daily strips were the direct ancestors of the comic book form that emerged in the 1930s.