Simon Simple Becomes a 'Jiu Jitsu' Expert

This Sunday comic strip follows the misadventures of Simon Simple as he attempts to master jiu jitsu, the Japanese martial art then newly fashionable in America. Through nine sequential panels, Simple progresses from confident novice to hapless victim, repeatedly thrown and bested by opponents and instructors. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comics: recurring character, speech balloons, sequential action across gridded panels, and physical comedy. Sunday pages like this became the laboratory where artists developed visual narrative techniques—panel borders directing eye movement, dialogue integrated into composition, and cumulative gag structure—that would become foundational to comic books. The strip's topical humor reflects American fascination with Japanese culture during the Russo-Japanese War period.