After bursting on the scene in the first decade of the 20th century, newspaper comics were exploding in popularity: Weekend sections went from 4, to 8, then to 16, and even 32 pages in 1935. And all those pages made room for a flood of new strips by a talented group of cartoonists: Long-running stories, increasingly complicated characters and plotlines filled the newsprint. We’ll see the first appearance of Barney Google, Blondie, Uncle Walt and Skeezix – characters who still appear in newspapers today. With a massive, colorful canvas to explore and seemingly endless creative possibilities, comic strips would never again be so glorious as these prewar decades.