Bringing Up Father — buf370724

Four panels track a domestic crisis: Maggie scolds husband Jiggs about their new butler, then reveals she has invited the police chief to dinner — at which point the terrified butler smashes a tray of dishes and leaps out the window. George McManus launched Bringing Up Father in 1913, running it daily and Sunday for over four decades. McManus's clean Art Nouveau line work — sinuous women, expressive crash lettering, starred impact bursts — influenced generations of cartoonists. The strip's simple recurring premise (nouveaux-riche wife versus corned-beef-loving husband) gave American newspaper comics one of their longest-running character franchises, demonstrating how daily serialization and consistent visual style could sustain a readership across continents.