Billy Make Believe

A Sunday newspaper comic strip by H.C. Horman featuring Billy, a young boy whose imagination transforms ordinary events into adventure. The strip demonstrates the visual vocabulary of 1920s comics: multi-panel sequences, expressive lettering for sound effects ("BOO!", "BLUP", "FLOOD"), and recurring characters in domestic settings. The narrative moves fluidly from realistic scenes to fantastical scenarios—a tidal bore becomes a thrilling escape, bath time transforms into seafaring mishap. Below, the instructional feature "How to Make It: A Ball Baby" shows how newspaper comics functioned as entertainment and craft guide simultaneously, inviting readers to construct toys from the strip itself. Such DIY extensions were common advertising adjacent to Sunday comics, expanding the medium's reach beyond the page.