The Top o' the Mornin'

W. D. Nesbit's *Top o' the Mornin'* exemplifies the Sunday newspaper comic page at its formal peak. Multiple self-contained gag strips—"She Declined," "Didn't Hit Him," "In the Good Old Days," "The Symptom"—share the page with illustrated prose fiction and an "Alphabet of Motives" advisory column. Speech balloons and sequential panels guide readers through sight gags and wordplay. By 1906, the Sunday comics had become a mass medium, with recurring characters, standardized layouts, and visual shorthand that would directly inform the emerging comic book. Artists like Nesbit pioneered the grammar of panel flow and expressive line work that defined the form.