Terry and Tacks

Joe Farren's *Terry and Tacks* appeared in Sunday newspapers as a full-page comic strip featuring two young characters navigating childhood adventures and pranks. The strip employs the visual language now standard to comics: sequenced panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters. The April Fool's theme showcases the strip's reliance on practical jokes and physical comedy—a mainstay of early newspaper comics. By 1917, Sunday comic pages had become major newspaper features, their visual storytelling conventions refined through decades of experimentation. Strips like this one demonstrate how newspapers became the primary vehicle for comics before the industry shifted to comic books in the 1930s.