The Gumps

Sidney Smith's *The Gumps* follows a middle-class family through domestic comedy and economic scheming. Here, Andy Gump discusses his plans to become wealthy by making the world "round"—a running joke about his get-rich schemes. The strip pioneered the serialized narrative in newspapers, introducing plot arcs that rewarded daily readership. Smith's clean line work, varied panel compositions, and use of speech balloons became foundational to comics language. Published in hundreds of papers, *The Gumps* demonstrated that comic strips could sustain ongoing character development and complex storytelling, paving the way for the visual grammar adopted by later comic books.