Our Friend Mush

Ad Carter's *Our Friend Mush* follows a mischievous character through six panels of escalating domestic chaos. Mush promises to play with the neighbor's child, leads him astray, and leaves destruction in his wake—culminating in an angry parent confrontation. Carter uses overlapping dialogue balloons, varied panel sizing, and expressive line work to build comedic momentum. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comic storytelling: recurring protagonists, sight gags anchored in suburban settings, and humor derived from simple deception and consequence. By 1917, such strips had become standard Sunday fare, their visual language—sequential panels, integrated text, character consistency—establishing conventions that would define comic books.