Splinters

A Sunday newspaper comic strip depicting a clown teaching dogs to play golf. The six-panel layout moves through a sequence: the clown instructs the dogs to hold steady while he swings, one dog drops the ball, the clown strikes it, and the dogs chase the result. Drawn in bold black ink with heavy cross-hatching, the strip employs recurring visual elements—the spotted clown costume, the pack of wire-haired dogs—and uses speech balloons to carry gags about instruction and obedience. This early Sunday page exemplifies the visual storytelling conventions of newspaper comics: sequential panels, character continuity, and sight gags built through panel-to-panel progression. Such strips formed the foundation of American comic books.