From the exhibition
Oh! Margy!
· December 27, 1925

By John Held, Jr., *Oh! Margy!* exemplifies the Sunday comic strip format that dominated newspapers in the 1920s. The strip's three-panel structure moves from gag setup through visual escalation to punchline, with sequential art driving the humor. Held's clean linework and economical figure drawing—characteristic of the era—establish character through gesture alone. The recurring female protagonist engages in seasonal activities, anchoring readership through familiar situations. Speech balloons and caption boxes ground narrative exposition, visual conventions now foundational to comics. Held's graphic style influenced how illustrators translated motion and personality across panels, helping establish the visual language that would define the medium.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain