TWO enormous black beasts guard the entrance to the little stony road leading up the hill to the rust colored home of The Smith Family, located north east of New York City in the Catskills.

Distant cousins of chows, Blackie and Teddy lie on either side of the entrance like the New York public library lions, waiting to bite automobiles-revenge for several old wounds.

"The Smith Family," most densely populated of the "family" come strips, appears in real life very much as it looks in The Courier-Journal.

Most of the characters are easily identifiable, even 6-week-old Suzanne, the dominating personality of the strip at present. Mrs. Smith, an exceptionally gentle woman of few words, had just started Suzanne on her bottle when I arrived. Cartoonist George Smith listened intently to the sound effects.

"I'd give anything to be able to spell that noise," mourned the artist, who is recognized in his field as the most realistic interpreter of family life in America. Watching the new baby were Dolores, 2, Georgie, 3%, and Carol, 5. They were also attacking a 10-pound bag of gum drops I had brought from the city.

The Smith Family" appeared off and on in maga zines before it began as a strip in 1960. The cast then included five children; the count of wee noses has since doubled. As the children arrive and grow up in the house with a mountain view on every side, they also arrive and grow up in the comic strip.

This growing up causes a certain regret in some fan mail. "But I want to portray a growing 'mural" of family life," says the cartoonist. "It delights me to see chil dren develop. Eventually there will be grandchildren." After lunch we toured Smith's two acres while awaiting the older children's return from school. Every where were evidences of small fry: a wading pool, jerry built "houses," dugouts, and left-ever implements of play, such as soup spoons

Smith retrieved two of the latter from the dirt-an act from right out of the strip a few weeks back. In that strip, when Mama asked for a fork, Papa didn't even look in the kitchen drawer. He went immediately to the back yard.

"ALMOST ALMOST everything in my strip has actually hap pened," he laughed, stooping over to pick up a mitten. There is, of course, one difference. George Smith's days of dashing for the bus ended in 1950. Like all successful comic strip artists, Smith works at home and

mails his work in to his syndicate.

At 3 pm, the school has brought the first wave of returning scholars: Tish, 6, Lorraine, 7, and Tina, At 3:30, a second school bus arrived. Ellen, 9, and

Kip, 10, hopped out. At 4 pm, Ginny, 14, brought up the rear guard of Smith students. Ginny is usually portrayed by Papa in the role of a lovesmitten teenager. Actually her first love in mathematics.

The presence of a stranger in the house had no effect on the little Smiths. I have never encountered better behaved or happier children anywhere.

There were evening chores, and 18 little handa be came very bury. A vast quantity of milk was brought into the house, one bottle at a time cach via a different Smith. Always there was a passing hand to keep the baby carriage rocking. Singing broke out in the kitchen. A light supper appeared.

IT WAS now necessary for Papa Smith to keep tab on the time, for my train schedule had to be consid ered. This brought up another Smith Family story.. Papa Smith's watch-now in perfect working order had been returned to him only the day before. Tish had wrecked it and carried the pieces to school, and a school-bus transaction had resulted in the passing of the wheels, springs and so on into the hands of another little girl.

"The Smith Family" appears in no papers in the immediate area, so the parents of the other girl were uneducated in the fate of watches in the Smith house hold. They feared their little daughter was guilty of doing the wrecking, so they had the watch repaired and apologetically returned it to the astounded artist.

"It runs for the first time in years," said Smith. As train time approached, and we drove out between the two crouching "lions," I looked back up the hill. The house was silhouetted against the evening elouds, and on the skyline in the gathering dusk appeared little figures in peaked caps, traditional headgear of the lit tle Smiths in and out of the funnies.

It rather seemed that I was leaving an enchanted land of gnomes, guarded by the two black dogs, who became mysterious fairy-tale beasts in the half-light.

 1970s The Columbian strips 1970–1979, Philadelphia Inquirer 1972, Austin American-Statesman 1971

 

The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts · Sunday, July 02, 1978

 

The Peoria Journal Peoria, Illinois · Friday, December 11, 1953

HANG ONTO YOUR HAT

New Family With 7 Girls Is Moving In!

MR. AND MRS, GEORGE SMITH, ARTIST 

and collaborator of the delightfully honest and hilarious comic strip, "The Smith Family," which starts Monday in the Peoria Journal, are shown with their family. Left to right are (top row), Ellen, Virginia (Ginny), and Katherine (Kip). (bottom) Lorraine, Carol Ann, Patricia (Tish) and Christine (Tina).

 

"One of the Smith Kids": A Smith Family Newspaper Panel

 "From the very beginning men an' women have had nothing in common except stupidity. They was given brains an' all they could see was apples!" One of the Smith kids drops a little philosophy in this panel, which a newspaper ran as a teaser for that day's strip. Clippings like this show how papers promoted The Smith Family to readers.

"Whoever Makes the Ugliest Face Wins My Teddy Bear": The Smith Family (Tri-City Herald, 1955)

 "Whoever makes the ugliest face wins my teddy bear." The Smith kids pull their worst faces, and then Mother's coming for a visit brings Dad into the contest. This daily ran in the Tri-City Herald on February 28, 1955, signed V. & G. Smith and distributed by the George Matthew Adams Service.

"Why Not, Mom?": The Smith Family (The Cincinnati Post & Times-Star)

 "Dolores, I've told you not to bring food out of the kitchen." "Why not, Mom?" Little Dolores makes her point in the last panel. This four-panel Smith Family strip was clipped from The Cincinnati Post & Times-Star.

"I Need 15¢ for Crayons, Mom": The Smith Family in Color

 "I need 15¢ for crayons, Mom." "Again! I gave you 15¢ for crayons yesterday. What do you do, eat them?" "You're on the right track." The hiccuping baby gives the game away in this full-color Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. Smith.