Our Boarding House

A Sunday newspaper comic strip by Gene Ahern featuring Major Amos Hoople and the residents of his boarding house. The strip employs the visual conventions that became standard in comics: sequential panels, speech balloons, recurring characters in episodic situations, and sight gags built from domestic routines. Here, Major Hoople recounts tall tales of his athletic past—a high jump record, pole vaulting exploits, and a mysterious race between Oxford and Cambridge. The strip's humor relies on the tension between the Major's boastful reminiscences and the skeptical reactions of his listeners, a formula Ahern sustained across hundreds of installments. The boarding house setting allowed continuous interaction among a stable cast, establishing the character-driven ensemble comedy that influenced comic strip and later comic book narratives.