Bringing Up Father — 1925-03-04

Four panels track Jiggs in rare domestic peace: he tells Maggie he's happy because they haven't exchanged a cross word in three days. A small black dog then ignores his call; Maggie storms in scolding the 'naughty doggie' with the same imperious energy she normally reserves for Jiggs. Final panel: Jiggs lounges contentedly in his armchair at six o'clock, all's well. McManus's line is fluid and assured — patterned fabrics, theatrical postures, speech balloons fully integrated into the scene. Bringing Up Father launched in 1913 and ran for decades, syndicated globally; its recurring cast and sustained domestic premise helped establish the daily comic strip as a narrative form, the direct ancestor of the comic book page.