The Newlyweds, by George McManus

McManus's *The Newlyweds* follows a young couple and their baby through domestic scenes built on visual gags and physical comedy. Here, the wife attempts to teach her husband a new phonograph record; the baby responds by mimicking the tune, escalating the household chaos into absurdist repetition. The strip employs the full vocabulary of early newspaper comics: multiple panels advancing sequential action, speech balloons capturing dialogue and sound effects, and a cast of recurring characters. McManus pioneered the Sunday page format that shaped comic strip design, influencing how artists would use panel layout, size variation, and visual pacing to control narrative rhythm—techniques foundational to the emerging comic book medium.