Smitty—Time Marches On!

This Sunday page from *Smitty* follows the strip's titular character and his dog through a narrative spanning multiple panels. The story opens with exposition: an Indian guide has led Smitty and his dogs into the North Woods, where they become lost near an abandoned mining town. The group discovers shelter in a dilapidated hotel. Subsequent panels show the characters examining the building's register—dated entries from 1889 and 1926 visible on its pages—establishing both setting and temporal mystery. *Smitty*, which debuted in 1920, exemplified the newspaper comic's visual language: sequential panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters in episodic adventures. Artist Walter Berndt employed clear linework and dynamic compositions typical of the era's dailies and Sunday pages, which served as the direct precursor to the comic book format.