Katzenjammer Kids — 1913-02-09

Twelve panels follow Hans and Fritz as they commandeer an ostrich at what appears to be a royal residence, provoking a regal figure and a postman before the Captain attempts an ostrich-riding lesson and is promptly hurled into the dirt. The gag chain closes when Mama reports the boys' mischief to the Captain, who bellows a final-panel NO! The strip's broken-English dialect, slapstick escalation, and expressive cross-hatching are hallmarks of Dirks's long-running page. Launched in *The New York Journal* in 1897, *Katzenjammer Kids* pioneered the sequenced panel grid, consistent recurring cast, and integrated speech balloons that would become the structural DNA of every comic book that followed.