Bringing Up Father

Four panels follow Jiggs, the parvenu Irish-American social climber in top hat and checked trousers, through a classic misunderstanding gag. A sheriff hands him a badge; Jiggs pockets it and promptly vows to arrest the next passerby just to test his new authority. He stops a motorist named Slavin, who claims he is driving to his mother-in-law's funeral — leaving Jiggs threatening him for joy-riding anyway. George McManus launched Bringing Up Father in 1913, and its clean ink line, expressive silhouettes, and brisk balloon-to-panel rhythm helped codify the daily newspaper comic strip as a mass medium. Those dailies and Sunday pages, collected and reprinted as giveaway pamphlets, directly seeded the comic book format that would crystallize in the 1930s.