Ratty Didn't Make Any Noise

This strip demonstrates the visual storytelling conventions that emerged in early newspaper comics. A tall figure attempts to cut through wood quietly, instructing a smaller character to avoid disturbing the neighborhood. When the plan fails—a large circular saw consumes the frame in panel five—the silent scheme collapses into chaos. The artist uses sequential panels, speech balloons, and exaggerated body language to convey cause and effect. By the early 1900s, Sunday newspaper comics had become a proving ground for the medium's fundamental grammar: recurring characters, escalating gags, and the panel-by-panel narrative structure that would define comics for decades.