Mutt and Jeff — 1909-12-02

"With Mutt in New York — Jeff Is Off Wrong Again" by Bud Fisher runs eight horizontal panels tracking a restaurant dispute: lanky Mutt schemes to slip something into a rude waiter's soup, while short, top-hatted Jeff gets ejected after trading insults over a bad fish dish. Fisher's draftsmanship is economical — expressive silhouettes, crowded speech balloons, slapstick stage-business in every panel. Launched in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1907, Mutt and Jeff was among the first American strips to carry the same cast strip to strip, daily, establishing the serialized comic as a viable form. Fisher's innovations in recurring character, consistent visual voice, and rapid gag rhythm directly shaped what would become the comic book page.