The Newlyweds by George McManus

McManus's The Newlyweds follows a young married couple and their infant son through domestic mishaps. Here, a series of hat deliveries and household chaos unfolds across six panels—the husband bewildered by his wife's hat selections, the child creating havoc with containers and headwear, and confusion mounting as parents attempt to manage both fashion and child-rearing. McManus employs the visual vocabulary of early newspaper comics: sequential panels, speech balloons advancing narrative, and recurring domestic characters. The strip's humor derives from physical slapstick and the collision of genteel aspiration with household disorder. The Newlyweds was among the most popular Sunday features of the 1910s, helping establish the newspaper comic strip as a distinct art form that would directly influence the development of comic books.