Militant Mary

A single-panel comic strip by Steve Hyde featuring Mary, a character defined by her defiant stance toward convention. The strip presents her declaration that she owns no corsets and cares nothing for propriety—"For love's a lot like lightning AND IT STRIKES MOST ANYWHERE!" The figure bursts with kinetic energy, arms raised, suggesting both rebellion and abandon. Hyde's economical line work and bold lettering were typical of the newspaper comic strips that emerged in the early 1900s, which established the visual language later adopted by comic books: speech balloons, expressive figure drawing, and witty captions. This single-panel format was standard in dailies and Sunday pages before the multi-panel narrative became dominant.