Happy Hooligan — St. Louis Republic, September 28, 1902

Six large panels follow Happy Hooligan—his signature tin-can hat perched on his head—as he attempts to defend a caged ostrich from tormentors at what appears to be a zoo or fairground. His brother Gloomy Gus lurks nearby, characteristically dour. The strip's physical comedy escalates panel by panel: Happy intervenes, chaos erupts, and the final panels show him battered for his trouble while a policeman looms. Frederick Burr Opper launched the strip in 1900 for Hearst's syndicate, making it one of the earliest recurring-character Sunday pages. These full-color broadsheet comics—predating the comic book by four decades—established the visual grammar still in use today: sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, and a cast readers followed week to week.