From the exhibition
Binnacle Jim
· February 19, 1905

This Sunday newspaper strip follows the misadventures of Jim, a sailor, as he recounts to shipmates how his parrot saved him from an angry captain. The narrative unfolds across six panels with speech balloons carrying dialogue and exposition. The artist employs sequential panels and recurring characters—Jim, his friend Bill, and a scheming parrot—to build comic timing through visual progression. Published during the formative years of the newspaper comic page, *Binnacle Jim* exemplifies how early strips combined maritime humor with slapstick action, establishing conventions of character consistency and panel-driven storytelling that would define twentieth-century comics.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain