Ophelia by Dwiggins

Clare Victor Dwiggins's *Ophelia* comic strip employs the visual conventions becoming standard in newspaper comics: sequential panels, expressive line work, and recurring characters in absurdist situations. Here, a dimwitted character receives cheerful advice from a guide reading "Cheer up! Things might be worse! Move the Best Smilers." The strip's loose, gestural drawing style and economical use of text exemplify how early-twentieth-century newspaper comics developed a visual shorthand that would influence all subsequent sequential art. Dwiggins, a prolific cartoonist and illustrator, worked across multiple strips during this period when newspaper comics were establishing themselves as a distinct medium between illustration and narrative.