Bringing Up Father — buf371102

Three panels follow Jiggs, the Irish-immigrant social climber created by George McManus in 1913, as he sneaks downstairs to grab the morning paper before his domineering wife Maggie can claim it. Mother beats him to it; daughter Mary is next asked for scissors to clip an item; the punchline lands with Jiggs resigned on a garden bench, muttering 'Ho-hum.' McManus's draftsmanship is unmistakable: art-nouveau flourishes, boldly patterned clothing, and expressive silhouettes rendered in crisp ink. Bringing Up Father ran for 87 years across thousands of papers worldwide, and its recurring cast, sequential panels, and integrated speech balloons exemplify the newspaper daily strip format that directly seeded the first comic book reprints of the 1930s.