The Gumps

Sidney Smith's *The Gumps* follows a middle-class family through domestic mishaps and misadventures. This Sunday page showcases the strip's visual sophistication: multiple tier layouts, sequential action spanning panels, and precise control of scale and perspective. Characters react with exaggerated expressions across six-panel sequences that build comedic momentum. The narrative—Old Doc Yak and automobile trouble—unfolds through dialogue balloons and sight gags typical of 1930s newspaper comics. *The Gumps* pioneered the daily narrative strip format that became the structural template for comic books, establishing conventions of recurring characters, serialized storytelling, and page design still used today.