Fuller Bunk

Meyer Marcus's *Fuller Bunk* follows a rotund contractor through six panels of steady comic escalation. When asked about his business, Fuller claims to be a contractor—then admits he's only ever controlled debts. The gag relies on visual repetition and verbal misdirection, hallmarks of early newspaper comic strips. Marcus uses consistent character design, panel-to-panel continuity, and speech balloons to guide readers through the joke's setup and payoff. By 1918, such strips had become standard Sunday fare, establishing the visual grammar—discrete panels, sequential narrative, recurring personalities—that would define the comic book medium emerging in the following decades.