Elmer—He Wins by Strategy

This Sunday comic strip follows Elmer, a young boy who outsmarts a bully through quick thinking rather than brute force. The narrative unfolds across eight panels of increasing complexity, demonstrating the visual vocabulary that newspapers had refined by the 1920s: sequential action, dialogue balloons, and expressive character work. Elmer's scheme—using the bully's own rubber boots against him—develops logically from setup through execution to payoff. The strip exemplifies how newspaper comics had become a distinct medium, with artists using panel borders, varied compositions, and sight gags to drive story and humor. Sunday pages like this were the primary venue for comics before the pulp-style comic book format emerged in the 1930s.