From the exhibition
Just Only Dear Little — "Pretty Boy" the Parrot
· c. 1902–1910, Sunday newspaper color page
A mischief-making parrot anchors this Sunday page, moving through twelve panels from pet-shop purchase to domestic chaos: the bird rides a wagon, hides under a chair before a preacher's visit, shouts an expletive at a dinner guest (panel 8's bold red D censoring the word), and ends up hurled across the room in a birdcage. The strip belongs to the golden age of American newspaper Sunday pages — Outcault's *Yellow Kid*, Dirks's *Katzenjammer Kids*, and McCay's *Little Nemo* had already codified panel grids, speech balloons, and sequential storytelling as a popular art form. The closing text block moralizes gently on parrots as mirrors of their owners' manners, giving the slapstick a wry punchline. Signed *Pretty Boy* in the final panel.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain
