The Newlyweds and their Baby
One of America's first cartoon families
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1907
Born in St. Louis in 1884, George McManus displayed a talent for cartooning at a young age, landing a job as an errand boy at The St. Louis Republic on the strength of a doodle he made in high school. In 1904, McManus moved to New York City and a job at the New York World, where among many comic creations, he created one of the first American family comic strips, The Newlyweds. Starring an elegant but nervous wife and a gentle but dim-witted husband, The Newlyweds was one of the most popular Sunday strips of its day. With the addition of Baby Snookums to the family in 1907, it became known as The Newlyweds and their Baby.That same year, the New York World printed a collection of the cartoons in a hardcover comic book, with glossy pages and color illustrations. Later, McManus went to work for The New York American, taking his cartoon family with him under the new title Their Only Child.
