ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Petey Dink, "Gee Whiz!"

· May 7, 1917

Petey Dink, "Gee Whiz!"
By C. A. Voight, this Sunday strip follows Petey Dink through four panels of domestic comic business. The first panel establishes the week's theatrical offering; subsequent panels shift between Henrietta Dink at her stove, Miss Mabel discussing neighborhood gossip, and Petey himself contemplating tomorrow's show. Voight employs the visual vocabulary of early newspaper comics: bordered panels, speech balloons containing plot and gag, and a recurring cast of characters whose relationships drive humor. The strip's gentle domestic comedy and reliance on character interaction typify the Sunday supplement format that emerged from the 1890s onward—fertile ground where the comic strip medium developed its fundamental grammar before the comic book era.

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