Smitty — 'Leap Year'

This *Smitty* strip showcases the visual economy of newspaper comic dailies and Sunday pages. Four panels flow through a scheme in which two businessmen plot to control their company by acquiring Smitty's shares—a setup that culminates in slapstick chaos when their plan backfires. The strip employs the formal grammar of sequential art: distinct rectangular panels, speech balloons anchored to speakers, and a cast of recurring office types. *Smitty*, which ran from 1921 onward, typified the humor comics that appeared in newspapers nationwide, establishing conventions—character consistency, visual gags tied to dialogue, clean line work—that became foundational to comic book storytelling. These newspaper strips were the true laboratory for the medium.