Terry and Tacks

This Sunday strip by Joe Farré follows a bully's practical joke that backfires spectacularly. The narrative unfolds across six panels: Terry boasts about tricking Tacks with a false claim about the school principal, then attempts the prank in the schoolroom. The joke escalates when other students join in, leading to chaos—a water pitcher spills across the floor in a dramatic splash. By the final panel, the would-be prankster faces unexpected consequences among his peers. Farré employs the vocabulary of early comics: distinct panel borders, expressive character poses, and speech balloons advancing the gag sequentially. The strip exemplifies how newspaper comics developed visual storytelling techniques that became foundational to the medium.