Splinters

This Sunday strip by Steinigans follows a clown's futile search for his performing pups using a bloodhound. The narrative unfolds across eight panels: the clown posts his dogs' photograph, a hound picks up the scent, and multiple dogs converge on the scene in escalating chaos. The final panel explodes into a full-page gag when all the animals arrive simultaneously. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comics' visual economy—simple linework, clear panel progression, and speech balloons driving plot and humor. Sunday pages like this established the formal vocabulary that would become foundational to comic books: sequential panels advancing a continuous story, recurring characters with visual identity, and wordplay integrated with slapstick action.