Superstitious Sam

This six-panel strip follows two characters debating the superstition that crossing paths with a black cat brings bad luck. When one character spots a cat and attempts to ward off misfortune through ritualistic gestures, the other mocks his fear—until a series of escalating mishaps unfolds across the sequence: the character tumbles, falls flat, and collides with objects in slapstick fashion. The strip demonstrates the visual vocabulary emerging in early newspaper comics: sequential panel layout, speech balloons advancing narrative, and recurring characters whose personality drives the gag. By the early 1900s, the Sunday and daily comic strip had become the primary laboratory where artists refined the formal language later adopted by comic books.