Barney Google — The Washington Times, July 25, 1920

Billy DeBeck's *Barney Google* arrives here as a full Sunday page syndicated through King Features, its twelve panels tracking the bulge-eyed, top-hatted Barney through a single continuous misadventure: renting his spare room to a stranger, a card-game hustle, a wife's telegram demanding he evict the lodger, and a final pratfall over his own clothes. DeBeck's line is loose and rubbery, speech balloons crowded with vernacular run-ons, characters telegraphed through silhouette and gesture rather than fine draftsmanship. The Sunday page format — originated in the 1890s by Outcault and Dirks — is precisely the medium that trained readers to follow sequential narrative across discrete panels, establishing the visual grammar that anthology reprint collections would soon package as the first comic books.