Percy

A Sunday newspaper comic strip following Percy, a rotund character navigating domestic mishaps and seasonal chaos. This page demonstrates the visual vocabulary that defined early comics: sequential panels advancing narrative, speech balloons carrying dialogue and thought, and repeated characters in escalating sight gags. The strip's vertical and horizontal panel arrangements guide reader flow across the page. Percy's physical comedy—tumbling through Christmas decorations, wrestling with ornaments and tree branches—relies on exaggerated body language and slapstick, a style rooted in vaudeville and silent film. By 1913, such strips appeared in Sunday newspaper supplements alongside advertisements and puzzles, reaching millions of readers weekly. The newspaper page itself became the birthplace of American comic art, where artists developed the sequential art language later adopted by comic books.