Bringing Up Father — buf390309

Four panels follow Jiggs, the Irish-American social climber created by George McManus, as he sneaks away from home to reach his office undetected by Maggie's brother. His daughter reports him asleep somewhere; Jiggs slips outside unobserved; arrives at the office congratulating himself; then the final panel reveals Maggie's brother already there, sound asleep on his book of accounts. McManus's draftsmanship is unmistakable — Art Nouveau-inflected interiors, crisp crosshatching, expressive pantomime. Launched in 1913, Bringing Up Father ran for nearly a century in syndication. Daily strips like this one were the direct raw material of the first comic books, which were simply reprinted newspaper pages folded into pamphlet form — the panel grid, speech balloon, and recurring cast already fully formed.