The Newlyweds—Their Baby

George McManus's domestic comedy strip followed a young married couple and their infant son through daily mishaps of bathing, dressing, and childcare. The strip's nine-panel grid—combining full scenes with closer studies of character reaction—became standard Sunday newspaper format. McManus's fluid ink line and economical backgrounds let dialogue and physical comedy drive each gag. *The Newlyweds* ran for decades across American papers, establishing the sitcom structure that would define comic strips and eventually television: recurring characters, domestic settings, and escalating sight gags built from ordinary life. The strip demonstrated that newspapers could sustain humor through character and situation rather than headline satire alone.