ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Bobby Make-Believe

· July 23, 1916

Bobby Make-Believe
A Sunday comic strip following a boy's imaginative adventures. Bobby and his companion Spud encounter a giant, climb beanstalk vines, and tumble through fantastical scenes rendered in dynamic pen-and-ink linework. The strip employs the visual grammar of early newspaper comics: sequential panels, speech balloons, and expressive character movement that conveys action across the page. Recurring child protagonists, dreamlike scenarios, and slapstick humor were staples of the Sunday funnies that helped establish the visual and narrative conventions adopted by comic books. The artist uses varied panel sizes and compositions to pace the narrative, guiding readers through Bobby's imaginative world with clarity and comic timing.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain