The Days of Real Sport: The Influenza

This Sunday strip by Clare Briggs presents a two-panel gag contrasting active recreation with convalescence during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The first panel shows a man rocking in a chair indoors, smoking; the second reveals a boy outside, reminded by his mother that he'll be back in school tomorrow. Briggs's economical linework and sequential panel structure—hallmarks of the newspaper comic form—render the visual joke through spatial contrast and dialogue. His *Days of Real Sport* series mined everyday American life for humor through recurring situations and characters, establishing the domestic comic strip as a staple of the Sunday funny pages. Working in the early decades of comics, Briggs helped codify the visual language—speech balloons, panel borders, expressive figure work—that became foundational to the medium.