Splinters by Steinigans

This Sunday strip follows a resourceful dog who trades a found steak for a meal at a butcher shop, then leads a pack of strays on a chaotic raid through a tenement. Steinigans employs the full visual vocabulary of early newspaper comics: multiple rectangular panels arranged in strict grid, speech balloons carrying dialogue and thought, exaggerated action lines, and a recurring animal protagonist. The narrative unfolds through sequential images rather than text alone—readers follow the dog's scheme and its consequences across six panels. By 1912, strips like this appeared in Sunday supplements nationwide, establishing the formal language that would define comic books: discrete panels, word-image integration, and episodic humor built on character continuity. Animal-centered comics were particularly popular with younger readers and allowed artists wide latitude for slapstick and anarchic humor.