From the exhibition
Salesman Sam
· May 1, 1928
In this Sunday strip, Sam pursues a customer reluctant to buy, deploying fast-paced visual gags across multiple panels. The sequence shows Sam's escalating sales pitch and the customer's resistance, climaxing in slapstick chaos. By Small's energetic linework and panel layout—with varied angles and sizes—propel readers through the action. *Salesman Sam* exemplifies the newspaper comic's visual shorthand: speech balloons, motion lines, and recurring characters that established the grammar later adopted by comic books. The strip's rapid-fire comedy and commercial setting reflect American popular humor of the late 1920s.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain
