The Newlyweds by George McManus

George McManus's *The Newlyweds* strips the domestic comedy down to its essentials: a young husband and wife navigating marriage through physical mishap and miscommunication. In the top strip, the groom attempts home repairs—nailing, screwing, sawing—while his bride watches the inevitable disasters unfold across six panels. The lower section shows *Splinters* and *Dad in Kidland*, other domestic farces where bodies collide with furniture and tools in slapstick sequence. McManus helped establish the visual grammar of sequential narrative: recurring characters, clear panel progression, and physical comedy told through silhouette and gesture. These Sunday newspaper strips, distributed nationally, became the laboratory where American comics learned to move.