Billy Bounce and his Autoslide

W.W. Denslow's *Billy Bounce* comic strip follows a young boy and his dog Fuzzy through slapstick adventures in a mechanical contraption called an Autoslide. The Sunday page demonstrates the visual language emerging in early newspaper comics: multiple circular vignettes guide readers through sequential action, speech balloons convey dialogue and exposition, and exaggerated character expressions amplify the humor. Recurring characters and serialized gags became the foundation of comic strip storytelling, establishing conventions that newspapers would syndicate nationally and that would eventually define the medium of comic books itself.