ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Old Doc Yak's New Year Resolves

· December 28, 1913

Old Doc Yak's New Year Resolves
This Sunday strip follows Old Doc Yak through his solemn New Year's vows—never to gamble, drink, or smoke—only to discover gold bars buried in the snow. The subsequent twelve panels chronicle his escalating temptation and ultimate failure, climaxing in explosions and chaos. The strip employs the visual conventions that defined early newspaper comics: sequential panels with speech balloons, a recognizable recurring character, and physical comedy that builds across the page. The narrative structure and panel progression demonstrate how newspaper cartoonists developed the visual grammar that would become fundamental to comic books.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain