The Changing World

This six-panel editorial cartoon tracks political and economic shifts across two decades. The top panels establish a visual metaphor: coal once ruled supreme, now oil threatens its throne. The middle row juxtaposes William Jennings Bryan's 1896 campaign—fought over currency policy—with his anticipated 1920 bid on moral grounds, showing how campaign issues evolve. The bottom panels contrast imperial conquest with mandates, suggesting old colonial powers now operate under new international frameworks. The strip employs sequential narrative typical of newspaper comics: recurring characters, escalating visual parallels, and captions that drive argument through form. Panels flow left-to-right with varying composition, demonstrating the visual grammar that shaped early comics—speech balloons, exaggerated figures, and spatial storytelling that would become standard in the medium.