Jerry on the Job

This Sunday newspaper page showcases six comic strips sharing space in The Washington Times, a common format that made comics a daily habit for millions. Jerry on the Job employs the visual vocabulary now standard to the medium: uniform panel grids, speech balloons carrying dialogue and thought, recurring characters, and physical comedy escalating across sequential panels. The strip's humor derives from workplace mishaps and Jerry's resourcefulness—archetypal themes of early newspaper comics. By 1920, the Sunday comics section had become a major circulation draw, with papers competing to attract readers through variety: alongside Jerry sit strips featuring animals, children, and domestic situations. These pages established the panel-based narrative form that would become the foundation of the comic book industry.