Splinters

A Sunday newspaper comic strip featuring a clown trainer and his performing dogs in a circus setting. The narrative unfolds across eight panels as the clown attempts to teach his canine troupe a new routine, progressing from instruction through mishap to chaotic collapse. Steinigans employs the visual conventions now standard to comics: sequential panels with speech balloons, expressive character poses, and repeated figures to show action and reaction. The strip's humor derives from physical comedy and the gap between the trainer's ambitions and his dogs' actual performance—a gag structure characteristic of early newspaper comics that synthesized vaudeville timing with the unique possibilities of the printed page.