Bringing Up Father — buf390904

Four horizontal panels follow Jiggs, the social-climbing Irish-American bricklayer, in conversation with a well-dressed acquaintance on a city street. The man urges Jiggs to visit his brother while traveling the country, sweetening the pitch by mentioning his daughter married "Lord Worthnotten." When Jiggs notes five breweries operate in that town and finding anyone there would be hard, the man reveals his brother manages the largest — then hands over the address. Jiggs, delighted, calls it "nice of you." George McManus drew Bringing Up Father continuously from 1913 until his death in 1954, his Art Nouveau-inflected linework and immaculate crosshatching setting a graphic standard for the syndicated daily strip. Strips like this one — distributed nationwide by King Features — were the direct raw material reprinted as early comic books, making McManus a foundational figure in the medium's commercial birth.