The Top O' the Mornin'

Richard Henry Little's *Top O' the Mornin'* appeared in the Sunday newspaper supplements that established comics as a distinct medium. The strip uses sequential panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters—visual conventions inherited from 19th-century satirical prints but codified here into the language of modern cartooning. Each episode presents interlocking gags: "Violent Weather Changes at the House Party," "Another Lie Nailed," "Triumph of Bookkeeping." The loose, expressive ink line and crowded compositions reflect the speed of newspaper production. By 1904, the Sunday funnies had become mass entertainment, reaching millions of readers and establishing the format that would dominate American popular culture through the twentieth century.