Believe It or Not by Ripley

Ripley's single-panel feature presents six oddities arranged without sequential narrative: a racehorse sold for £265,000; Lieutenant John H. Wilson's parachute jump from 19,800 feet; Dan O'Leary's 100-mile walking feat; a cyclist's cross-country ride in record time; Al Beach's 34-run baseball performance; and a runner completing 100 miles. Each item occupies its own space with brief caption, eschewing the panel-and-balloon structure of contemporary comic strips. This format—the factoid collection illustrated for visual interest—became the template for *Believe It or Not's* decades-long newspaper run. Ripley's strip pioneered a hybrid form: neither traditional comic narrative nor editorial cartoon, but a new vehicle for curating the unusual as visual spectacle.