Kernel Cootie

A six-panel strip following a harried doctor summoned to a series of emergencies. Each panel escalates the chaos: a cyclist arrives with a broken arm, a motorist reports hitting someone with his car, another patient needs immediate attention, and finally the doctor himself must write a prescription. The strip uses sequential panel layout, speech balloons, and physical comedy typical of 1920s newspaper comics. The recurring character of the beleaguered professional—overwhelmed by circumstance—became a stock figure in daily strips. Drawn in loose pen line with minimal shading, the work exemplifies the rapid-fire gag format that dominated American newspapers during the early comic strip era, before the Sunday pages developed more elaborate visual storytelling.