Stepbrothers

Gene Carr's *Stepbrothers* follows the daily misadventures of two boys and their guardian, rendered in the visual language that defined early newspaper comics. The strip employs sequential panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters—formal innovations that emerged from the Sunday supplement boom of the 1890s. Here, a scheme involving nickels unfolds across six panels: the boys pitch an idea to their elderly uncle, who agrees to fund them, then attempt to execute it, collapsing into chaos. Carr's economical linework and reliance on physical comedy reflect the slapstick tradition that dominated the medium before the 1920s. The strip exemplifies how daily comics translated stage humor and children's literature into a new visual medium.