Their Only Child

This Sunday comic strip follows a small child's mischievous antics as adults attempt to manage the chaos. The strip demonstrates the visual conventions established by early newspaper comics: sequential panels arranged in a grid, speech balloons advancing narrative, and a recurring cast of characters. The exaggerated physical comedy—adults tumbling, gesturing wildly, the child crawling underfoot—relies on sight gags that transcend language. By 1913, newspaper comics had become a distinct medium, employing the vocabulary of panel borders, varied camera angles, and synchronized text and image that would define the form. The strip's domestic setting and focus on family life reflect popular subject matter of the era's funny papers.