A Few More Lemons at a Cent Apiece

This four-panel strip by F. G. Long exemplifies the rapid-fire gag format that dominated early newspaper comics. Each panel presents a self-contained joke built on visual slapstick and punning wordplay: a man's bafflement over a legal case, a chorus girl's elopement, a wife's thaw, and an unknown person's identity. The simple line work and exaggerated facial expressions—wide eyes, open mouths—became the visual shorthand of comics in the dailies and Sunday supplements. Small recurring characters and quick narrative beats like these were the building blocks of comic strip storytelling, establishing the panel-and-balloon grammar that would evolve into the modern comic book medium.