So here's a copy of one panel from Crockett Johnson's Barnaby (specifically of 14 January 1943, in case you have the book with a reprint). Gorgon the dog picked up his name from Barnaby, the human kid, misunderstanding something his fairy godfather Mr O'Malley said. They were trying to teach Gorgon to speak, and it turned out he could; he had just never tried. So that's the sense of humor the comic strip worked on, and if the notion that he's teaching himself how to do tricks amuses you too, then this is very much a comic strip for you.

I used a thinner Technical Pen on ArtRage for this. The width seems more nearly all right, but boy are shapes this basic hard to do. I don't make any attempt to copy Johnson's word balloons, because he didn't hand-letter them. He had them typeset, in Futura, so they look really good.