Otto Auto

This three-panel strip follows Otto and his automobile through a collision sequence. The car hits a rock, launches skyward, and crashes down again—each panel advances the action through dynamic diagonal compositions and overlapping speed lines. Speech balloons carry Otto's running commentary as he struggles with his vehicle's unpredictable behavior. The strip exemplifies early comic art: sequential panels arranged left-to-right, dialogue integrated into illustrated space, and a recurring character navigating humorous physical misadventure. By 1906, Sunday newspaper comic strips had become major features, establishing the visual conventions—panel borders, word balloons, exaggerated motion—that would define the medium. Artists of this era invented the grammar that comics still use today.