The Gumps

Sidney Smith's The Gumps follows a middle-class family through domestic comedy and mild misadventure. This Sunday page shows Andy Gump involved in schemes—a new business venture, a bath dispute with his wife Min, and a pickle-related disagreement. Smith's crisp linework and clear panel progression exemplify the visual language emerging from newspaper comics: sequential panels advancing a narrative, expressive character poses, and dialogue balloons anchoring gags. Launched in 1917, The Gumps became one of the Tribune's flagship strips, influencing how artists structured visual storytelling. The strip's success demonstrated that recurring characters and family-centered humor could sustain daily and Sunday readership, establishing the template for comic-strip popularity and the eventual transition from newspaper serials to comic books.