Bringing Up Father — buf370921

Four panels follow Jiggs, the henpecked Irish-American social climber, through a medical misadventure. A doctor assures Maggie her husband's gout is improving—he bandaged the foot while Jiggs slept. Maggie, dripping with pearls and practiced condescension, thanks him warmly. Then Jiggs's bellow of OH-MAGGIE! from the next room cuts the pleasantries short: he is very much awake, and the final panel reveals the doctor has bandaged the wrong foot. George McManus launched Bringing Up Father in 1913, running it until his death in 1954. Its fluid Art Nouveau linework, expressive silhouettes, and rapid-fire panel-to-panel causality helped codify the grammar that daily newspaper strips handed directly to the early comic book format.