From the exhibition
Thimble Theatre
· January 23, 1920
A comic strip built on physical comedy and recurring characters in domestic situations. Two panels show a sweater exchanged between siblings—first borrowed for ice skating, then demanded back after it gets soaked. The humor escalates across six panels: initial negotiation, water mishap, panic, and escalating absurdity as the sweater shrinks. The strip uses sequential panels with speech balloons to develop a simple gag over time, characteristic of newspaper comics that established visual storytelling conventions. *Thimble Theatre* appeared in daily and Sunday papers, part of the medium's early development before comic books collected these strips into bound form.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain
