From the exhibition
Sunday Comic Strip, 1925
· October 22, 1925

This four-panel Sunday strip demonstrates the visual vocabulary that emerged from early twentieth-century newspaper comics. The sequence follows two characters through a physical comedy routine: a miscommunication about travel plans escalates into slapstick action across the panels. Speech balloons anchor dialogue while body language and motion lines convey movement and chaos. The strip's layout—establishing shot, escalating conflict, climax, and resolution—became standard narrative architecture for comic strips. By the 1920s, the Sunday pages had evolved into a distinct art form, with artists experimenting with panel composition, character design, and timing to maximize comedic effect within fixed spaces. Such strips appeared in hundreds of newspapers nationwide, establishing recurring characters and visual gags that readers followed daily.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain