The Troubles of Dictionary Jaques

This comic strip by Carey follows a character obsessed with dictionary definitions through a series of physical misadventures. Each panel depicts Jaques attempting to verify or apply dictionary meanings literally—jumping "around like a lunatic," stimulating his brain with an apple to the head, and eventually being chased and struck by townspeople who misunderstand his antics. The strip employs sequential panel narration with speech balloons to advance the humor, relying on the visual gag of a pedantic character meeting slapstick consequences. Newspaper comic strips of this era served as laboratories for developing the visual language that would define comics: panel progression, character consistency, and the integration of text and image to tell stories across multiple frames.