Barney Google — The Washington Times, July 11, 1920

Billy DeBeck's Barney Google fills this full Sunday page in four tiers of panels, each bordered in the clean black-ruled style that newspaper syndicates had standardized by 1920. The strip follows the pint-sized, pop-eyed Barney through a single sustained gag: a bill collector pursues him, Barney dodges into the country for a restorative motor outing, falls asleep roadside, gets robbed, and ends tied to a tree while a confederate tries to change a hundred-dollar bill at the post office. DeBeck's drawing is loose and rubbery — figures tilt at comic angles, hats fly, speech balloons crowd the action. Launched in 1919 by King Features Syndicate, Barney Google reached millions of readers through Sunday pages like this one — the very format that, collected and stapled, would become the American comic book.