ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

How Would You Like to Be John?

· January 24, 1904

How Would You Like to Be John?
This Sunday comic strip follows a man named John through six panels of escalating domestic chaos. A woman asks how he'd like to be John, then systematically answers her own question by subjecting him to increasingly absurd mishaps: he's struck by falling objects, chased by children, attacked by a dog, and finally encounters what appears to be an aggressive animal or creature. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comics' visual storytelling—sequential panels with speech balloons, exaggerated action, and physical comedy. By the early 1900s, Sunday newspaper comics had become a major form of entertainment, establishing the foundational language of the medium: panel progression, character consistency, and sight gags that would define comic strips and eventually comic books.

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