Barney Google — The Washington Times, February 27, 1921

Billy DeBeck's *Barney Google* runs twelve panels across this Sunday page, following the pint-sized, pop-eyed Barney as he spots a newspaper ad for a wealthy bachelor's furniture sale, fixates on acquiring a library table, gets thrown out of the seller's house for offering a paltry $3.00, stages a sidewalk auction that draws a crowd of equally broke bidders, and ends up at a second-hand store asking whether three bucks will buy him what he wants. The gag is pure escalating futility. DeBeck's linework is loose and energetic, his figures rubbery, his crowd scenes convincingly chaotic. By 1921 the syndicated Sunday page had already codified the visual grammar comics still use — discrete panels, integrated speech balloons, a recurring cast — and *Barney Google*, launched in 1919 by King Features, was among its sharpest practitioners.