Kitty Khaki: There's Something Worse Than Flat Feet

A four-panel Sunday comic strip featuring Kitty Khaki, a character in military dress. The strip presents a wordless visual gag: a soldier with no feet reports to his commanding officer, who declares him fit for service—his condition poses no problem since he has "no dependents, no debts, all his respiration is OK, there's nothing wrong." The punchline follows: when "cold feet"—military slang for cowardice—strikes during combat, the footless soldier marches unflinchingly forward. The strip demonstrates the visual storytelling grammar of the newspaper comic page: sequential panels, expressive figure drawing, and escalating action building to a climactic joke. Published during America's World War I involvement, Kitty Khaki exemplified how comics provided satirical commentary on military life for Sunday newspaper readers.