THE BETTER HALF by Bob Barnes

Randy Glasbergen currently draws THE BETTER HALF. The daily newspaper panel was created by veteran cartoonist Bob Barnes in 1956 and syndicated by the Register and Hall Syndicate. The feature is currently distributed by King Features.

Stanley and Harriet Parker spar over middle class concerns. She stays home and irons and does the wash and is a bad woman driver. He smokes his pipe, mows the lawn, complains about the bills and occasionally ogles other ladies. If the spouses aren't trading zingers with another, they are combating the many butchers, paper boys, garbage me, store clerks and others.

Two years into its run, the National Cartoonists Society awarded the Best Newspaper Panel Division Award. Mr. Barnes drew it until 1972, when, according to the Wikipedia page, it was taken over by:

" ... Ruth Barnes and Dick Rogers (1973-1979), Vinnie Vinson (1979-1982), and Randy Glasbergen (1982-present). Between 1982 and 1992 Glasbergen wrote under the pseudonym "Jay Harris", so as not to confuse publishers who were familiar with his different style of humor and character design. As he was able to transform the characters to his own style, he began using his own name. In the process, Stanley became much shorter than Harriet and lost his scruffy mustache. "Harris" was his wife's maiden name."

James Coco and Lily Tomlin portrayed the couple in an unsold 1970s ABC TV pilot.

Here are two dozen from THE BETTER HALF book, a paperback collection published by Duell, Slean and Pearce, New York and is copyright 1963 by the Register and Hall Syndicate