From the exhibition
A Few More Lemons at a Cent Apiece
· 1907

By F. G. Long, this four-panel strip exemplifies the newspaper comic format that preceded the modern comic book. Each panel features a punning headline—Jerome Smokes a Sausage, Thaw King of Coconut Grove, Ice Trust Fears Thaw, Thaw Raises Purple Whiskers—paired with comedic illustrations of two characters reacting to absurdist scenarios. The recurring figures and sequential gag structure demonstrate how early newspaper comics developed visual conventions: bordered panels, speech balloons, and exaggerated expressions that would become foundational to comic art. The strip traffics in topical humor referencing contemporary figures and events, a staple of the Sunday funnies that drove newspaper circulation in the early twentieth century.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain