Smitty — All Play and No Work

This Sunday strip follows Smitty, a mischievous boy who spends his days evading work and chores through schemes and wordplay. The four-panel sequence demonstrates the visual economy of early newspaper comics: recurring characters, escalating gags across panels, and expressive line work that conveys movement and personality. Speech balloons anchor dialogue while action unfolds in clear spatial progression. Smitty strips appeared in newspapers nationwide, part of the Sunday funny pages that established the visual language—panel borders, sequential narrative, character consistency—later adopted by comic books. The strip's popularity reflected Depression-era audiences' appetite for escapist humor centered on a clever protagonist outwitting adults.