Barney Google — The Washington Times, July 11, 1920

Billy DeBeck's *Barney Google* fills this full Sunday page in four tiers of panels, each bordered in the clean black-ruled style that newspaper syndicates had standardized by 1920. The strip follows the pint-sized, pop-eyed Barney through a single sustained gag: a bill collector pursues him, Barney dodges into the country for a restorative motor outing, falls asleep roadside, gets robbed, and ends tied to a tree while a confederate tries to change a hundred-dollar bill at the post office. DeBeck's drawing is loose and rubbery — figures tilt at comic angles, hats fly, speech balloons crowd the action. Launched in 1919 by King Features Syndicate, *Barney Google* reached millions of readers through Sunday pages like this one — the very format that, collected and stapled, would become the American comic book.