Mr. Happihome

Walter Wellman's *Mr. Happihome* follows a husband's comic misadventures in domestic life. This strip employs the visual conventions that defined early newspaper comics: sequential panels with speech balloons, a recurring protagonist, and physical comedy that unfolds across multiple frames. The humor derives from the gap between the character's expectations and reality—he admires a seashell at a jewelry shop, then attempts to impress his wife with an inexpensive trinket. By the early 1900s, such comic strips were staples of Sunday newspapers, establishing the narrative techniques and character-driven formats that would form the foundation of the modern comic book.