Bringing Up Father — buf400921

Three panels follow Jiggs — McManus's Irish-immigrant social climber — returning from a sea voyage. A captain dispatches him ashore by rowboat; the middle panel shows Jiggs and a companion lurching through rough water, arguing whether they're going over the dock or under it; the final panel deposits a seasick, wobbly-legged Jiggs before a crowd of overdressed onlookers who tsk that his wife should see him in that condition. McManus's draftsmanship is fluid and assured: thick confident brushwork, elegantly hatched waves, and women's fashions rendered with couturier precision. Launched in 1913, Bringing Up Father was among the first strips to build its comedy entirely on a recurring domestic cast — Jiggs and the formidable Maggie — pioneering the serialized character arc that Sunday newspaper pages handed directly to the comic-book format.