Smitty—The Avenging Angel

This daily strip follows Smitty, an office boy whose mild appearance masks a vengeful streak. The narrative arc moves swiftly across four panels: Smitty's boss frames him for theft, Smitty overhears the confession broadcast across the city, Smitty delivers a decisive slap, and chaos erupts as he flees through crowded streets. The strip exemplifies the visual conventions that emerged in newspaper comics: speech balloons carrying dialogue and internal monologue, discrete panel progression, and recurring comic types—the hapless employee, the corrupt authority figure, slapstick resolution. Published in daily papers alongside the Sunday color pages, such strips reached millions and established the sequential art language that would define the comic book form.