From the exhibition
Bobby Make-Believe
· March 25, 1917

This Sunday page follows Bobby through a spook séance scenario, where he and his friend Spud attempt to fool adults with ghost impersonations. The strip demonstrates the visual conventions of early newspaper comics: multiple panels arranged in a grid, speech balloons carrying dialogue and thought captions, and a child protagonist whose imagination anchors the narrative. Bobby's schemes and their inevitable unraveling formed the strip's basic comedic structure. The panel sequence uses sight gags and escalating chaos—sheet-draped "ghosts" startling the adults, physical slapstick, and the final deflating revelation—techniques that became standard in funny papers across the era. Bobby Make-Believe represented the everyday humor that made newspaper comics essential reading for American families.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain