From the exhibition
Sunday Comic Section — St. Louis Republic
· April 26, 1903

This Sunday newspaper page from the St. Louis Republic combines portrait photography with illustrated panels reporting on legislative scandal and lobbying practices. The layout mixes journalistic portraiture—circular-framed headshots of politicians named in the story—with multi-panel cartoon sequences depicting scenes of influence and persuasion. The visual strategy uses sequential illustration alongside news text, exemplifying early 1900s newspaper design where comics, caricature, and reportage occupied the same page. The recurring use of panels with figures in conversation, supported by explanatory captions and body text, demonstrates how Sunday supplements developed visual conventions—compartmentalized scenes, character identification, narrative sequence—that would define comic strip language for decades to come.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain