Splinters

This Sunday newspaper strip by Steinigans follows a spotted dog's misadventure with stolen sausages. The narrative unfolds across eight panels with escalating chaos: the dog claims the sausages are his dinner, gets caught by a woman protecting her goods, attempts escape, and triggers a chase involving multiple dogs and exasperated humans. The strip exemplifies early comic strip conventions—recurring animal protagonist, speech balloons, sequential panel progression showing cause and effect, and slapstick gag structure. As Sunday comics became standard newspaper features in the early 1900s, artists like Steinigans helped establish the visual vocabulary that would define comics: distinct panels, expressive character design, and narrative economy that made the form ideal for both entertainment and eventual comic book reproduction.