Bringing Up Father — buf400205a

George McManus's Bringing Up Father follows Jiggs, a newly wealthy Irish-American laborer forever chafing against his social-climbing wife Maggie. In this daily strip, three doormen cheerfully greet Jiggs by name on the street; he then encounters an acquaintance rhapsodizing about Florida — sunny climate, sea breezes, beautiful palms — before deadpanning that there are plenty of palms right here in his hotel. McManus's draftsmanship is immediately recognizable: fluid Art Nouveau linework, impeccably dressed figures, and confident brushwork in the backgrounds. Launched in 1913, Bringing Up Father was among the first strips syndicated globally, and its recurring cast, sequential panels, and integrated speech balloons helped codify the visual language that early comic book publishers would simply bind and reprint to create a new medium.