in 1896, payne was employed at the "pittsburgh post". "coon hollow folks", his first comic strip, was followed by "bear creek folks", "scary william" and "yennie yonson". he created "honeybunch's hubby" (originally titled "mr. mush"), for the "new york world", and in 1911, he drew "peter pumpkin" for "the philadelphia inquirer". his 1910 strip, "nippy's pop", was later retitled "s'matter, pop?" initially carried by the bell syndicate, it ran from 1911 to 1940. during the 1920s, "s'matter, pop?" was a sunday strip in the "new york world", followed by decades as a daily strip in "the sun". in the early 1930s, "s'matter, pop" and "honeybunch's hubby" (which returned from a 20-year hiatus) spent times alternating as the main strip and the topper strip.