From the exhibition
Eddie's Friends
· February 13, 1921

This Sunday strip follows Eddie and his rotund friend through a series of domestic misadventures. The narrative unfolds across twelve panels: Eddie's mother insists on hosting guests for the evening; Eddie attempts to obtain a suitable meal; complications arise when his friend arrives uninvited to a poker game; the evening devolves into chaos involving a stove, unexpected visitors, and a series of excuses. The comic employs the standard visual vocabulary of 1920s newspaper strips—sequential panels, speech balloons, and expressive line work—to construct a linear narrative that rewards close reading. Such strips populated Sunday supplements and dailies, establishing the visual grammar that would become foundational to comic books. The format's accessibility and serialized nature made newspaper comics primary entertainment for American audiences.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain