Penny Ante — Ladies' Night

Gene Knott's *Penny Ante* strip depicts a card game among men and women, with characters debating wagers and game rules across multiple panels. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comic conventions: sequential panels with speech balloons advancing a single gag, recurring characters in domestic and social settings, and ink linework that defines form through cross-hatching and bold strokes. By 1916, Sunday strips like this had become standard newspaper fare, establishing visual storytelling methods that would shape comic book art for decades. The strip's episodic humor—centered on ordinary social situations rather than fantastic adventures—reflects the genre's roots in daily life observation.