Harry Hershfield's Comic Strip Advertisement for MGM's 'Mike'

This advertisement features Harry Hershfield, creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip *Abie the Agent*, promoting MGM's comedy film *Mike*. The strip uses the visual vocabulary of newspaper comics—panel borders, speech balloons, and exaggerated caricature—to deliver its punchline about the name "Mike" spelled with an M. Hershfield's work exemplified how newspaper comic strips became the primary training ground for visual storytelling in early twentieth-century America. Comics artists pioneered the sequential panel layout and character-driven humor that would define the medium. Here, a comic strip serves as advertising copy, reflecting the commercial reach and cultural prominence of comic art during the silent film era.