Splinters, by Steinigans

This newspaper comic strip follows a character's attempt to remove splinters from his hand using a wooden bucket and an axe—a slapstick scenario that escalates across six panels. Steinigans employs the visual grammar that defined early comics: sequential panels, speech balloons, and exaggerated expressions to convey action and humor. The recurring character and domestic setting were typical of Sunday newspaper strips that preceded the modern comic book. The strip's economy of line and reliance on physical comedy reflect the aesthetic conventions that newspaper cartoonists established as foundational to the medium, turning the funny pages into laboratories for the visual language comics would inherit.