The Wasp — 1878 — page 349: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This six-panel comic strip depicts a child named Algerton Atwood repeatedly antagonizing a mosquito ("skeeter"), only to face escalating supernatural consequences. Atwood swats at the insect, which then grows to enormous size and kidnaps him. The mosquito drags the boy to a mountain, drops him, and he crashes through his bed—waking to find it was a nightmare. The humor relies on a simple moral lesson: the child's mistreatment of the mosquito results in comeuppance through a terrifying dream. This reflects Victorian-era children's literature conventions using fantastical punishment to discourage misbehavior. The six-panel format was common in early satirical magazines for serialized comedic narratives.