The Newlyweds by George McManus

McManus follows a young husband's misadventure with a garden hose across six panels, building visual comedy through repetition and escalation. The husband's plan to water the lawn while his wife and baby relax indoors spirals into chaos when the hose tangles and sprays erupt, culminating in the wife's exasperated discovery. McManus employs the visual grammar of early newspaper comics: sequential panels, speech balloons anchoring character voice, and physical gags that read clearly in black and white. *The Newlyweds* ran as both Sunday pages and daily strips, helping establish the domestic sitcom format. McManus's clean line work and precise panel composition influenced the visual language that would define comic books.