Smitty — Secret Service

This daily strip follows Smitty, an office boy caught in workplace schemes. The narrative unfolds across five panels: colleagues plot to give stock tips to their boss Mr. Bailey as a gift; Smitty overhears and prepares to share the news; the group presents their idea; Smitty asks to participate; an older man—possibly Bailey himself—reacts with surprise. The strip exemplifies the visual vocabulary emerging from newspaper comics: sequential panels advance plot, speech balloons contain dialogue, recurring characters build reader investment. The artist uses dense cross-hatching and period clothing to establish setting and character type, while the tight layout maximizes space in the newspaper page. Smitty represents the dailies' role in establishing comics as a distinct narrative medium before the comic book industry emerged.