Smitty — A Setback

This Sunday strip follows Smitty and his companions after a canoe accident leaves them stranded without supplies. The narrative unfolds across four panels: the survivors assess their situation, mourn lost provisions, resolve to trek inland, and spot a potential rescue. The strip employs the visual conventions established by newspaper comics—panel borders, speech balloons, and sequential storytelling—to develop plot and character reaction. Smitty ran as both daily and Sunday strips, establishing recurring characters and gag-driven scenarios that became foundational to comic strip form. The work demonstrates how early newspaper comics built sustained narratives through visual pacing and dialogue, techniques that directly shaped the emerging comic book medium.