Bobby Make-Believe

This Sunday strip follows young Bobby through a series of escalating fantasies—from blowing into a hose to imagining himself a circus performer, sailor, and finally a World War I aviator. The strip demonstrates the visual storytelling techniques that defined early newspaper comics: recurring child protagonist, speech balloons advancing narrative, panel sequences that build from mundane reality to elaborate dream sequences. Bobby's adventures across multiple fantasy scenarios within a single page became a standard formula for Sunday papers, allowing artists to explore varied settings and gags while maintaining reader familiarity with familiar characters. The strip's energetic line work and sequential pacing illustrate how newspaper comics invented the visual grammar that would shape comic books.