From the exhibition
The Newlyweds by George McManus
· May 5, 1912

George McManus's *The Newlyweds* follows a young married couple through domestic mishaps and misunderstandings. This Sunday strip demonstrates the visual storytelling conventions that shaped early comics: sequential panels advancing a narrative, speech balloons carrying dialogue, and recurring characters in situations both relatable and absurd. McManus's energetic linework and spatial composition—characters moving across panels, expressions changing with each beat—show how newspaper cartoonists developed the grammar of comic art. *The Newlyweds* appeared in Sunday editions nationwide, reaching millions of readers and establishing the marriage-comedy formula that would dominate newspaper comics for decades.
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