This got me curious as to when thought bubbles were first used. This website claims they were invented by Dirks. The example they give of his use of a thought bubble is from 1909, a year after this Everett True comic. So while this certainly predates common usage of though bubbles, it potentially also predates the first instance of one!
Thought bubbles weren’t invented until 1978, when the first Garfield strip was published. Until then everything was spoken aloud. Dark times.
This got me curious as to when thought bubbles were first used. This website claims they were invented by Dirks. The example they give of his use of a thought bubble is from 1909, a year after this Everett True comic. So while this certainly predates common usage of though bubbles, it potentially also predates the first instance of one!