ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Etta Kett

· 1920s–1930s

Etta Kett
A daily strip by Paul Robinson featuring the titular flapper character navigating romantic mishaps and social situations. The strip employs the visual vocabulary established by newspaper comics: sequential panels with speech balloons advancing a gag, recurring characters, and expressive figure work. Etta Kett ran in syndication during the height of the newspaper comic strip era, when dailies and Sunday pages were the primary vehicles for sequential narrative art. The strip's style—clean line work, clear panel borders, and dialogue-driven humor—exemplifies how newspaper comics codified the grammar later adopted by comic books. Robinson's work reflects the period's fascination with young, independent female characters navigating modern urban life.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain