Militant Mary

A single-panel gag strip featuring Mary, a working-class woman in military-style dress, recounting her day. After taking a taxi she couldn't afford to pay, Mary resolves the debt by simply leaving the cab and letting it "chug away." The strip's humor relies on Mary's casual defiance and her matter-of-fact narration. The character type—the plucky, independent woman—was common in early newspaper comics. The panel format, speech balloon, and expressive line work exemplify techniques developed during comics' emergence as a daily newspaper feature in the 1900s and 1910s.