From theKatzenjammer Kids

William Glackens's illustration captures a moment of physical comedy from Rudolph Dirks's *Katzenjammer Kids*, the strip that revolutionized newspaper comics. Debuting in 1897, the strip pioneered sequential panel design, speech balloons, and recurring character types—visual innovations that became the foundation of comic art. Glackens's dynamic line work depicts one character throttling another in a playful wrestling hold, the turbulent water rendered in expressive strokes. The *Katzenjammer Kids* established the Sunday page as a mass medium for visual storytelling, influencing generations of cartoonists and establishing templates for action, slapstick, and character interaction that defined American comics.