Bringing Up Father — buf400305

Four panels follow the domestic chaos of Jiggs and Maggie: she has lost her diamond bracelet and demands action; he telephones J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI, name-dropping with comic confidence; a half-hour later Maggie takes the call herself, thrilled that Hoover personally intervened — only to learn the agents recovered her brother too, an unwelcome bonus. McManus's line work is assured and economical, his figures rounded and expressive, his cross-hatched backgrounds conveying solid middle-class interiors. Launched in 1913, Bringing Up Father was among the earliest strips to build a recurring cast across years of dailies and Sunday pages — exactly the serialized, panel-driven storytelling that proto-comic-book publishers would soon collect and reprint, establishing the medium's commercial and narrative foundation.