From the exhibition
Napoleon Newly Wed Feeds Kitty Foodles
· 1908

This Sunday newspaper strip follows a young couple and their pet cat through domestic life. The wife admires her husband's new police uniform in the opening panels, then the narrative shifts to their kitten's antics—playing, vocalizing, and demanding milk. The artist employs the visual conventions that defined early newspaper comics: sequential panels, speech balloons, and expressive line work. Recurring characters like the "Newlyweds" and their pets anchored reader loyalty across multiple installments. Sunday comics like this one, appearing in major papers nationwide, established the serialized format and visual grammar that would directly influence the emergence of comic books in the 1930s. The strip's domestic humor and accessible drawing style made it among the era's most popular features.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain