From jeeps* to security blankets** to hot dogs***, comic strips have long shaped the American vernacular. Today’s addition to the Comic Supplement is responsible for one of the most evocative and enduring catchphrases of the last century. While the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” is heard every day across the English-speaking world, the comic strip Keeping Up With the Joneses, from which the phrase is derived, is virtually unknown.

Well, “virtually unknown” is where we’re vikings, here at Barnacle Press. Joneses is a domestic comedy revolving around Aloysius McGinis (bearing a striking resemblance to Paw from Polly and Her Pals, which debuted a year earlier) and his wife Clarice as they strive in vain to keep up with the titular, though never seen, Joneses. These early strips often stick to the conceit of the title fairly closely, with each day’s gag revolving around an attempt to match a specific aspect of the Jones lifestyle. That the Joneses are constantly referenced but never seen adds a layer of pathos to the proceedings; we the readers are left to assume that while the McGinises are caught in an eternal struggle to live up to the standards set by the Joneses, the Joneses have never even heard of the McGinises.

But as the conceit played itself out, the strip became a more typical battle-of-the-sexes family strip. Aloysius and Clarice finally ceased their quixotic quest upon the strip’s demise in 1940. Our run begins in the year of the strip’s genesis in 1913. Enjoy.

* Segar
** Schulz
*** Tad Dorgan (Yeah, I know it’s an urban legend; work with me, here!)