Otto Auto

This three-panel strip follows Otto, an automobile enthusiast, as he pitches the pyramids as an ideal vacation spot for automotive tourism. The joke escalates across panels: Otto imagines converting the ancient monuments into a roller-coaster ride, culminating in a crash sequence. The strip demonstrates early comic strip syntax—sequential panels with speech balloons advancing a narrative gag. By 1906, such strips populated American Sunday newspapers, establishing visual conventions that would define comics for decades: recurring characters, panel-to-panel progression, and escalating absurdity for humor. The automobile itself was still novel enough to anchor comedy, reflecting contemporary fascination with motorized transport.