Opper editorial cartoon, 1920s

"A ray of hope for a wrecked pirate!"
Frederick Opper is truly one of the founding fathers of the comic strip. He is credited to be the first cartoonist who established the use of the speech balloon on the Funnies page. Pretty essential for comics history, dontcha think?
Opper was already an established illustrator when the birth of the comic strip occured, and he joined in with his own classic strip "Happy Hooligan". Later in his career he turned to editorial cartooning. Here's a prohibition era example of that work - as it happens, without balloons.