From the exhibition
Jerry on the Job
· June 28, 1917

A daily newspaper strip following Jerry, an office boy, through workplace mishaps and comic entanglements. This strip exemplifies the visual storytelling techniques that emerged in early comics: sequential panels with overlapping dialogue, varied shot scales from wide scenes to close-ups, and recurring characters in episodic narratives. By the 1910s, newspaper comics had established the grammar later adopted by comic books—balloons for speech, action lines for movement, and panel borders guiding reader attention. *Jerry on the Job* ran for decades, reaching millions through syndication and establishing the office comedy as a viable genre for daily serial humor.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain