Algy Gets Five Aces

This comic strip demonstrates the visual conventions that newspaper artists developed in the early twentieth century: sequential panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters in comic situations. The narrative follows a con game at cards, with escalating physical comedy as the protagonist's scheme unravels. The strip's six-panel layout and reliance on visual gags over dialogue reflect the grammar of newspaper comics—a form that emerged directly from the Sunday pages and dailies before being reprinted and collected into what would become known as comic books. The exaggerated expressions and slapstick violence typify the humor of the era.