Bringing Up Father — buf400516

Four panels track Jiggs and a companion in a hotel lobby, trading quips about Salem, Oregon's scenery and sightseeing plans. A bellhop mistakes Jiggs for someone he knows; Jiggs, seated in an armchair, delivers the punchline: he loves the hotel precisely because it does not remind him of home. George McManus launched Bringing Up Father in 1913, running it until his death in 1954 — one of the longest-lived strips in syndication history. McManus's signature style is unmistakable: bold Art Nouveau flourishes, crosshatched check patterns on Jiggs's suit, and architecturally precise backgrounds. The daily strip format — tight gag compression across three or four panels — directly shaped the grammar that early comic-book editors reprinted and later codified as the page layouts readers still recognize today.