Old Doc Yak

Sidney Smith's *Old Doc Yak* strips exemplify the Sunday newspaper comic format at its height. The strip features a recurring cast of animal characters—the eponymous yak physician and his associates—navigating absurdist situations across six interconnected panels. Speech balloons carry extended dialogue, while sight gags and verbal humor drive the narrative flow. Smith's draftsmanship demonstrates the visual vocabulary that newspaper comics had established by 1912: clear panel borders, expressive caricature, and sequential pacing that guides readers from setup to punchline. These Sunday pages, alongside daily strips, established the formal and narrative conventions that would define American comic books.