Petey Dink

C. A. Voight's *Petey Dink* strip demonstrates the visual language that emerged in early newspaper comics: sequential panels with speech balloons, a recurring child protagonist, and sight gags built on physical comedy and misunderstanding. Here Petey fears his misdeed—possibly involving a broken object—has caused harm. The strip's economy of line and reliance on visual storytelling reflect how newspaper dailies and Sunday pages pioneered the panel-based narrative form that would define comic books. By the 1910s, strips like this established the conventions readers would expect: character consistency, escalating action across frames, and humor derived from situation rather than text alone.