Old Doc Yak Relieves the Monk of Some Spare Change

This five-panel strip follows Old Doc Yak, a recurring character in early newspaper comics, as he tricks a monk out of money through a series of escalating schemes involving falling coins and umbrellas. The strip exemplifies the visual conventions that emerged in the 1910s: distinct rectangular panels, minimal text, and physical comedy that reads across the page. Old Doc Yak strips appeared in Sunday and daily newspapers, part of the explosion of comic narratives that established the formal language—sequential panels, character consistency, sight gags—later adopted by comic books. The strip's reliance on visual gags over dialogue reflects the period's newspaper humor aesthetic.