The Top o' the Mornin'

W. D. Nesbit's *Top o' the Mornin'* exemplifies the Sunday newspaper comic page at its peak. The strip combines multiple independent gags—*Dramatic Pride*, *One Advantage*, *As a Favor*, *Little Henry's Slate*—each with distinct characters and settings, unified only by the artist's hand and the weekly publication. Recurring characters like Little Henry appear across segments, establishing reader familiarity. The visual grammar is fully formed: panel borders, speech balloons, and sequential art guide the eye through jokes that range from domestic humor to visual wordplay. These Sunday pages, reprinted and collected into bound volumes, directly begat the comic book format and established the visual and narrative conventions that would define the medium.