The Bungle Family

The Bungle Family by Harry Tuthill - (New York Evening Mail/McNaught Syndicate) Sunday, April 16th, 1933 (Platinum-Age)
The Bungle Family was an American comic strip, created by Harry J. Tuthill, that first appeared in 1918. Originally titled Home, Sweet Home, it first appeared as part of a series of rotating strips in the New York Evening Mail. Known as "the finest, most inventive and socially critical of the family strips," The Bungle Family was a popular domestic comedy that emphasized dialogue and realistic situations. The titular patriarch of the strip, long-suffering, cantankerous George Bungle, voiced the petty frustrations and joys of the common man during the Jazz Age and through the Depression. Seen only sporadically in 1918, the strip was published daily and was nationally syndicated by the end of 1919. Home, Sweet Home followed the adventures of Mabel (later Josephine) and George, a young couple beset on all sides by in-laws, neighbors and businessmen. Tuthill took the strip to the McNaught Syndicate when the Evening Mail was sold in 1924, changing the name to The Bungle Family and adding daughter Peggy Bungle to the cast. A Sunday page was in existence by September 9, 1923. In the mid-1930s, Tuthill serialized exotic adventures and introduced a large supporting cast over the next several years, moves that were accompanied by a huge surge of public interest in the strip. Despite its fame, the strip was brought to a conclusion by its creator on August 1, 1942. Revived on May 17, 1943, it ended permanently June 2, 1945. Complete with Little Brother topper, this is a nice twelve-panel example.