Daily Newspaper Comic Strip, Victoria Daily Times

This newspaper page from British Columbia shows the visual language that defined early comics: a central cartoon illustration dominates the page, surrounded by text columns. By 1910, daily papers across North America had begun featuring single-panel and sequential comic art, establishing conventions—distinct frames, expressive linework, satirical or humorous subjects—that would define the medium. The artist uses bold ink and cross-hatching typical of the era's wood-block and letterpress printing. These newspaper strips and Sunday pages were the true origin of comic books; publishers would later collect them into bound volumes, creating the first comic books by the 1930s. The strip format became the template for all sequential art that followed.