Nobody by Meek

This two-panel strip demonstrates the visual economy of early newspaper comics. A shabby vagrant asks a well-dressed man for five dollars; when the man asks his name, the punchline arrives: the vagrant is literally Nobody. Meek uses exaggerated character design—ragged clothing and posture versus formal dress—to establish social hierarchy instantly. Speech balloons and sequential panels were still relatively new tools for humor; this strip relies on a simple verbal joke executed through the graphic language newspapers had begun standardizing. The format shows how daily comics adapted vaudeville timing and music-hall gags to the printed page, creating a new medium that would eventually evolve into comic books.