Mr. Wad—This Weather Certainly is Contagious!

A four-panel comic strip by Gale featuring Mr. Wad, a rotund gentleman in formal dress confronted by a shabbily dressed visitor. In panel one, Wad complains that everything is crying for rain. His guest suggests standing around yakking won't help—why not work? Wad deflects, claiming work makes him cry too. By the final panel, the beggar has vanished and Wad stands alone, declaring "Oh! Nothing!" The strip employs the visual conventions established in early newspaper comics: consistent characters, sequential panel layout, speech balloons, and exaggerated body language for comedic effect. The gag turns on Wad's laziness and self-pity, delivered through economical black-and-white drawing typical of the newspaper dailies that formed the foundation of American comic art.