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.