Bringing Up Father — 2 September 1924

Four panels set on a beach: Jiggs, the squat, cigar-chomping Irish-American social climber in top hat and checkered suit, ogles passing women in bathing costumes and approves heartily — until the woman in the scanty suit turns out to be his own daughter, at which point he erupts in furious embarrassment and sends her back to the bathhouse. George McManus drew Bringing Up Father from 1913 until his death in 1954, making it one of the longest-running strips in syndication history. McManus's clean ink line, architectural backgrounds, and expressive silhouette work influenced a generation of cartoonists. Strips like this one, reproduced in newspaper pages across the country and later collected in reprint booklets, formed the direct commercial and formal foundation on which the comic book industry was built.