The comic strip The Smith Family was created by my grandparent's George and Virginia Smith, American cartoonists whose collaboration produced one of the longest-running family humor strips of the 20th century. George J. Smith (born 1920, Brooklyn, New York studied art under the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and attended the Pratt Institute. Early in his career, he worked as a commercial artist and sold single-panel gags to magazines before shifting to syndicated comics. In 1950, he launched The Smith Family, initially distributed by the George Matthew Adams Service. Much of the comic’s content drew upon his own large family—George and Virginia raised eleven children ten girls and one boy. As the strip matured, George became increasingly introspective, using humor to critique overregulation, consumerism, and moral decay in American society. He described his goal not as escapism but as an attempt to “reach through routine and say something human”. Beyond his comic work, Smith gave lectures about visual storytelling and often emphasized art as a tool for social reflection. Virginia Smith served as Editor Co Writer.