Salesman Sam

This four-panel strip follows Sam through a chaotic day of mishaps. In the opening panels, Sam's boss threatens to fire him over a missing car, then a collision sends Sam flying. The final panels show escalating slapstick: Sam crashes through a storefront window, then careens wildly through a crowded interior. The strip exemplifies the visual language developed in newspaper comics—sequential panels tracking action and reaction, speech balloons conveying urgency and humor, and exaggerated body movement to convey comedy. The recurring character Sam, a traveling salesman, appeared in dailies and Sunday pages throughout the 1920s-30s, embodying the fast-paced, gag-driven humor that newspapers used to build circulation.