Katzenjammer Kids — 1909-10-10

Twelve color panels follow Hans and Fritz—Rudolph Dirks's perpetually scheming German-American boys—as they enlist in a fictional Nicaraguan army, outwit a pompous captain, set off a giant firecracker, and reduce the general to tearful rage. The Captain and the Inspector appear in their familiar roles as targets of slapstick retribution. Dirks drew in a loose, energetic line with thick outlines, expressive faces, and speech balloons crammed with phonetic German-English dialect. First published in the *New York Journal* in 1897, *Katzenjammer Kids* established the recurring-character Sunday page as a commercial and artistic institution, cementing the conventions—sequential panels, integrated dialogue, week-to-week continuity—that American newspaper comics handed directly to the comic book form.