From the exhibition
The Diary of Snubs, Our Dog
· early 20th century

This comic strip follows the misadventures of Snubs, a small dog navigating household life alongside human characters. Across five panels, the narrative unfolds through sequential art: the owner searches for missing papers, calls the dog, instructs him to investigate, presents a broken dish, and finally dismisses the incident. The strip employs the visual vocabulary that became standard in newspaper comics—distinct panels, speech balloons, recurring characters, and sight gags. The humor derives from the dog's perspective and the slapstick consequences of his actions. Such strips were foundational to comic art, demonstrating how panel sequence and character consistency could sustain ongoing narratives in the Sunday and daily newspaper pages that preceded the modern comic book.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain