Overhead Charges

This Sunday comic strip follows Percy Spillikins through six panels of domestic mishap, from a servant problem to escalating household chaos. The narrative unfolds through speech balloons and sequential action: a maid's departure triggers a series of failed attempts to manage the home, culminating in slapstick destruction. The strip employs the visual conventions that had crystallized in newspaper comics by the 1910s—panel borders, thought balloons, gestural drawing for comedic effect, and recurring characters in domestic situations. Such strips formed the foundation of American comic art, establishing the grammar of visual storytelling that would define the medium for decades.