Sunday Comic Section

This newspaper comics page from the St. Louis Republic exemplifies the early Sunday supplement format that established the visual language of sequential art. The layout combines multiple comic strips with caricatured figures, exaggerated facial features, and crude sequential panels that defined 1890s-1900s newspaper humor. Characters employ speech balloons and sight gags across sequential frames—visual conventions that became foundational to comic book grammar. These Sunday sections, distributed to millions weekly, functioned as the direct precursor to the comic book format, training audiences in reading sequential images and establishing the recurring characters and visual tropes that would define the medium.