The Newlyweds—Their Baby

George McManus's *The Newlyweds* strip follows a young married couple and their infant through domestic mishaps. Here, the husband attempts to borrow a ladder from a neighbor, leading to a series of slapstick complications as he repeatedly descends and ascends the stairs with the unwieldy object while tending the baby. McManus employs sequential panels, speech balloons, and visual gags—the grammar of newspaper comics that emerged in the 1900s. The strip's humor derives from physical comedy and the everyday chaos of domestic life, themes that resonated with newspaper readers. *The Newlyweds* exemplified the Sunday and daily comic strips that formed the foundation of American comic art before the comic book format emerged.