Billy Bounce

W.W. Denslow's *Billy Bounce* follows a mischievous boy who substitutes for a postman on Valentine's Day, triggering a slapstick sequence of escalating consequences. The strip demonstrates early comic narrative technique: numbered panels guide readers through cause-and-effect chaos, speech balloons carry dialogue and exposition, and recurring character Billy anchors the episodic gags. Denslow, already famous as illustrator of *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*, brings theatrical staging and exaggerated body language to the Sunday newspaper page—visual strategies that defined the emerging language of comics and influenced generations of cartoonists working in dailies and comic books.