Militant Mary

This single-panel comic by Steve Hyde features Mary, a working woman who catalogs her grievances in rapid succession: overwork, low wages, illness without support. The punchline pivots sharply—her true source of anguish is witnessing the wealth of millionaires. The strip employs the visual conventions of early newspaper comics: a simple line drawing, speech balloon delivering the narrative voice, and a recurring character type. Published in the era when daily comic strips were establishing themselves as a distinct medium, *Militant Mary* reflects both the visual language being codified by cartoonists and the social anxieties of its moment, using humor to comment on economic inequality and class consciousness.