From the exhibition
The Captain and the Kids
· March 8, 1925
R. Dirks's *Captain and the Kids* exemplifies the Sunday newspaper comic strip at its height. The strip employs a twelve-panel grid, speech balloons, and sequential action to chronicle mishaps between a stern sea captain and two mischievous boys. Dirks uses line work and cross-hatching to convey movement and expression across panels, establishing visual continuity through recurring characters and domestic conflicts. Originally titled *Katzenjammer Kids* (1897), this strip pioneered the format that became foundational to comic book storytelling: episodic humor built on character types, visual gags dependent on panel sequence, and the graphical language of modern comics.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain
