Click the image to see a larger version.
Frank King drew Gasoline Alley for a little over 40 years, until the strip was taken over by his assistants Bill Perry and Dick Moores. This strip was published near the end of his run. Perry had already taken over the Sunday strip at this point. Also, a year before, two movies based on the strip had been released, one simply called Gasoline Alley, and the other called Corky of Gasoline Alley. I watched the first one (you can, too, if you want, courtesy of The Film Detective). It's a perfectly fine, fairly uninteresting, but inoffensive movie. I wanted to watch the second one, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere to watch, either to stream or to purchase. Still, it was released the same year as the first and has the same cast, so I imagine it's just about as perfectly fine but not great as the first one is.
This particular strip is great, because it's about a Christmas gift but also looks forward to the new year. I don't think Tops's approach is the best one to take, especially since you don't have to smoke even if you're wearing a smoking jacket. I guess it'll be fine, though, as long as he keeps to his word. I can imagine him continuing to smoke and using the jacket as an excuse. Guess I'll have to look back at Gasoline Alley strips from 1953 to find out if he did or not.