The Newlyweds by George McManus

George McManus's *The Newlyweds* follows a young married couple navigating domestic life through visual comedy. Here, a baby interrupts the husband's attempts to impress his wife with flowers, then attracts bees—each panel advancing the gag through McManus's economical linework and careful staging. The strip pioneered the Sunday comics format, establishing conventions that shaped all sequential art to follow: bordered panels that control pacing, speech balloons anchoring dialogue to speakers, and recurring characters whose familiarity deepened reader investment. McManus's clean draftsmanship and timing influenced cartoonists for decades, making *The Newlyweds* foundational to how comic strips—and later comic books—told stories through sequential images.