Smith used the domestic sphere as a primary laboratory for his “stark realism.” Rejecting the sanitized, mid-century soap-opera version of the nuclear family, George and his wife and collaborator Virginia insisted on portraying two really real parents caught in the chaotic track meet of existence. That was a radical departure from the curated perfection of their contemporaries.

Smith was a deep reader of psychology and theology, and he refused to sequester those heavy ideas from his art. He synthesized Erich Fromm and Paul Tillich, arguing that the overcoming of alienation must occur first inside the house.

Erich Fromm

He drew heavily on Fromm’s analysis of the schizoid, anxious, and detached nature of American life. He viewed the modern individual as increasingly alienated from labor and from family — and then he put that diagnosis in the mouth of a child taking out the garbage.

Paul Tillich

Smith was fascinated by Tillich’s New Being — a state where “separation is overcome.” He saw the messy connections of a family of eleven children as the ultimate venue for that theological breakthrough.

Another profound theological pronouncement from Charlie my 2½ year old grandson. Paul Tillich, brilliant theologian, spent endless nights working out his ‘New Being,’ which he defined as wherever separation is overcome… as I shut the door Charlie piped, ‘Leave door open, Gampa.’ Tillich’s replacement.

By anchoring Tillich’s dense abstractions in a grandson’s simple plea for an open door, Smith did what the strip always did: translate the high language of the century into the language of the hallway.