Top o' the Mornin'

W.D. Nesbit's *Top o' the Mornin'* exemplifies the Sunday newspaper comic strip at its foundational moment. The page combines multiple narrative sequences—"His Ideal," "The Eternal Feminine," "Preparation," and "Her Impression"—each advancing plot through sequential panels with speech balloons. Recurring characters and domestic situations anchor the humor. The layout strategy, mixing full-width scenes with smaller vignettes, established design conventions that shaped subsequent comic book page composition. Nesbit's pen work and panel progression demonstrate how newspaper artists of this era developed visual syntax later inherited by the comic book medium itself.