Just Dog

A single-tier comic strip by Dickey following a spotted dog's self-improvement journey. The dog announces "Day by Day in Every Way / I'm Getting—" before boasting to smaller dogs about becoming "Mangier and Mangier!" The final panel reveals the ironic payoff: as a disciple of Coué Bucky Kelly, the dog's affirmation backfired spectacularly. The strip employs sequential panels with speech balloons and a recurring canine protagonist—visual conventions that shaped early newspaper comics. Published in the Metropolitan Newspaper Service, the strip exemplifies the brief comic narratives that preceded the comic book, built on wordplay and visual punchlines for daily amusement.