Joe and Asbestos

This daily comic strip follows Joe and his diminutive companion Asbestos through a Florida hotel scheme. The strip employs the visual conventions that defined early newspaper comics: sequential panels with dialogue balloons, recurring characters, and sight gags built on misunderstanding and wordplay. The Latonia big sleeper—a con involving a wealthy investor—unfolds across six panels, each advancing the narrative through character reaction and escalating complication. Ken Kling's artwork demonstrates the economical linework and expressive caricature typical of 1920s newspaper cartooning. These dailies formed the foundation of comic art itself, establishing the panel-based narrative structure and character continuity that would define the medium.