Snapshot Bill by Russ Westover

A Sunday newspaper strip featuring Bill, a character obsessed with photographing a bear. The six-panel layout follows Bill's escalating schemes: he recruits a reluctant accomplice, scouts locations, sneaks into a building, and culminates in a visual punchline—the "bear" he finally photographs is his friend in disguise. Westover employs the formal grammar of early comic strips: sequential panels, speech balloons advancing narrative and gags, and a recurring protagonist whose antics drive the humor. This strip exemplifies the Sunday comics format that emerged in newspapers around 1900, establishing the visual and structural conventions that would define the medium. The economy of line and exaggerated character postures convey action and emotion across panels, techniques central to comics' development as a distinct art form.