Sunset

This is not a comic strip but a landscape painting by Frederic Edwin Church, a leading American artist of the Hudson River School. Church was known for monumental studies of light and atmosphere across varied terrains—from Niagara Falls to volcanic peaks in Ecuador. This vertical composition explores the graduated effects of sunset, moving from deep reds and blacks at the base through rich orange and gold tones toward pale yellows at the horizon. Church's layered technique and attention to atmospheric phenomena influenced how American artists depicted dramatic natural light, shaping visual conventions that would later inform the language of illustration and sequential art.