The Changing World

This political cartoon sequence uses sequential panels and speech balloons to compare economic practices across eras. The strip contrasts George Washington's modest inauguration with 1920s war profiteering, then depicts a negotiation between government and munitions dealers in two parallel scenes—one where suppliers demand three billion dollars, the other where they ask twelve hundred million for surplus goods. The visual grammar of recurring characters, dialogue balloons, and multi-panel narrative layout typifies the Sunday newspaper comic format that emerged in the 1890s. Artists like Richard Outcault and later practitioners established these fundamental techniques—sequential art, captions, and visual pacing—that became the foundation of modern comics.