Gene Ahern's daily comic strip about the bombastic, freeloading Major Hoople and the long-suffering residents of his boarding house. Running from 1921 through the 1930s and beyond — one panel per day, as it was meant to be read.
Our Boarding House was created by Gene Ahern and distributed by NEA Service Inc., launching in 1921. Its central figure, Major Amos B. Hoople — rotund, pompous, and magnificently deluded about his own importance — became one of the most beloved comic characters of the era. The Major spent his days spinning tall tales, dodging work, and exasperating everyone within earshot with his signature exclamation: "Harrumph!"
These panels are from the 1927 run of the strip — some of the earliest surviving examples. Published before the era of the Comics Code or syndication standardization, they have a loose, improvisational energy that later newspaper comics rarely matched. One panel rotates in each day. Come back tomorrow for the next one.