Bobby Make-Believe

This Sunday strip follows young Bobby and his hobo companion through a series of imaginative adventures. The narrative unfolds across twelve panels, alternating between domestic scenes and outdoor escapades—running away from home, hopping freight trains, catching chickens, and sleeping under the stars. The artist employs the visual grammar now standard to newspaper comics: rectangular panels arranged in a grid, speech balloons carrying dialogue, and repeated character appearances that anchor readers' engagement. The strip's humor derives from Bobby's romantic idealization of hobo life contrasted with reality's harder truths. Strips like this one were the direct precursors to comic books, establishing the sequential art form that would define the medium for decades to come.