Bud 'n' Bub: What Price Friendship?

This four-panel strip follows a child's account of his father's encounter with a judge who happens to be his friend. The narrative unfolds through dialogue: the boy explains the friendship, reports seeing them together, then reveals his father's assessment when asked. The final panel delivers the punchline—a $25 fine—subverting expectations of class solidarity. Cressy's economical linework and sequential storytelling exemplify newspaper comic conventions: recurring child protagonist, adult foibles as humor, and visual gags anchored in speech balloons. Such dailies formed the backbone of early comic strip culture, establishing narrative techniques and character types that would define the emerging medium.