Little Abe Corncob Was Stumped All Right

This six-panel strip follows Little Abe Corncob as he attempts to fell a large tree with an axe, only to be repeatedly knocked down by its falling branches and roots. The humor derives from slapstick repetition: each panel stages a fresh collision between boy and timber, with dialogue capturing his mounting frustration. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comic conventions—recurring character, sequential panels advancing a simple gag, hand-lettered speech balloons, and ink line work defining action and landscape. Such strips populated Sunday supplements and daily editions in the early 1900s, establishing the visual language that would define American comics for decades.