Gabe

This Sunday strip follows Gabe, a mischievous child character, through a sequence of misadventures involving a donkey named Henerey. The narrative unfolds across twelve panels arranged in four rows, using the developing visual conventions of early newspaper comics: distinct panel borders, speech balloons, and sequential action that builds toward comic payoff. Gabe attempts to train the stubborn animal, leading to escalating chaos—from indoor chaos to outdoor pursuits to the final tumble into water. The strip exemplifies how early-twentieth-century cartoonists refined the grammar of sequential art: recurring characters, sight gags, and panel-to-panel progression that would become foundational to comic books. The bold black-and-white linework and caricatured figures were characteristic of the Sunday funnies that appeared in newspapers across America during this period.