Pranks of the Fourpaws

A six-panel Sunday comic by W.L. Wells (drawings) and G.P. McDonald (verses), featuring a crocodile and animal cast in a slapstick narrative. The strip demonstrates early sequential storytelling through panel progression: a lonely crocodile is visited by a giraffe, who falls prey to an ostrich's prank, leading to escalating chaos among the gathered animals. Each panel advances the plot while animal characters react through exaggerated gesture and expression. The verse beneath each panel drives narrative and humor. Published during the formative era when Sunday newspaper comics established visual conventions—panel borders, speech delivery through text, recurring character types—that would become foundational to comic strip and later comic book language.