Now, What D'ye Think of That?

This three-panel comic strip illustrates the visual conventions that defined early newspaper comics. Two characters in checkered suits debate the merits of a horse, with speech balloons carrying their argument across each panel. The final image reveals the punchline: the woman admits she was merely contradicting her brother John. The strip demonstrates how recurring characters, sequential panel layout, and dialogue balloons—the foundational grammar of comics—appeared in Sunday newspaper pages before the comic book format existed. These newspaper strips, distributed to millions of readers, established the visual language that would define the medium for generations.