Superstitious Sam Missed the Last Car

This comic strip exemplifies the newspaper Sunday page format that birthed American comics. The six-panel grid uses speech balloons, sequential action, and recurring characters—visual conventions developed by pioneers like Richard Outcault and Winsor McCay. Two men in bowlers and checked suits navigate a nighttime mishap with physical comedy and wordplay. The artist employs ink-wash shading and caricature to drive gags across panels. By the 1900s, such strips appeared in color Sunday editions nationwide, establishing the narrative grammar and character-driven humor that would define comic books when they emerged two decades later.