Sunday Comic Section — St. Louis Republic

This Sunday newspaper page from 1902 reveals comics in their formative moment—still embedded within general news sections rather than as standalone publications. The dense layout combines short strips, illustrated jokes, and text features typical of early newspaper comics. Artists of this era were developing the visual vocabulary that would define the medium: sequential panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters that readers followed week to week. These Sunday sections, appearing in major papers across America, functioned as the true birthplace of the comic book, establishing both the artistic conventions and the commercial model that would sustain the industry.