Lucy and Sophie Say Goodbye

This Sunday comic strip follows two women, Lucy and Sophie, through a farcical farewell at a doorway. Across five panels, suitcases tumble from overhead, ropes break, and the characters' attempts at dignified parting collapse into physical comedy. The strip demonstrates the visual grammar that defined early newspaper comics: sequential panels with speech balloons, recurring characters in exaggerated poses, and escalating gags. By the early 1900s, Sunday newspaper pages had become laboratories for this emerging language—artists developed the conventions of panel borders, motion lines, and expressive typography that would form the foundation of comic books. Strips like this one entertained millions while establishing the formal vocabulary that cartoonists still use today.