From the exhibition
Herr Spiegleburger: "Such a Family of Chokers—Yes?"
· 1905

This six-panel strip follows a child's escalating bathroom chaos as parental warnings go unheeded. Each panel advances the gag through sequential action: the child ignores advice, struggles in the tub, and triggers an explosive finale. The comic employs the visual vocabulary standardized in early newspaper comics—bordered panels, speech balloons, exaggerated facial expressions, and physical comedy. By 1905, daily and Sunday newspaper strips had become the primary laboratory for developing comics as a distinct medium, establishing conventions that would shape all subsequent sequential art. Artists refined the language of panel-to-panel narrative flow, character design, and timing through hundreds of weekly installments reaching mass audiences.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain