Billy Bounce and the Snow Man

W. W. Denslow's *Billy Bounce and the Snow Man* demonstrates the visual storytelling conventions that emerged in early newspaper comics. The strip follows a mischievous boy through a sequence of panels as he constructs and animates a snowman, then introduces it to Mother Goose characters. Denslow uses consistent character design, sequential action across panels, and speech balloons to propel narrative. The Sunday-page format—combining illustration with sequential art—bridged children's book traditions and the comics medium developing in American newspapers. By 1901, such strips had established the basic visual grammar: panels as discrete moments, recurring protagonists, and humor derived from character interaction and escalating situations.