Happy Hooligan — 1901-07-14

Nine panels follow Happy Hooligan—tin-can hat, outsized coat, perpetual grin—through a disastrous zoo visit. He spots a caged gorilla, decides it looks lonely, and offers a handshake; the ape drags him through the bars, flings him about, and by the final panel a policeman hauls Happy away while the gorilla waves goodbye. Opper draws with loose, rubbery confidence: exaggerated silhouettes, speech balloons anchored cleanly to speakers, numbered panels guiding the eye left-to-right across three tiers. Published in the San Francisco Examiner's Sunday Comic Supplement under William Randolph Hearst, this page exemplifies the American newspaper color supplement that directly preceded the comic book—reprints of such strips, bundled and stapled, became the first true comic books in the early 1930s.