Mutt and Jeff — 1909-12-18

Six panels follow the mismatched duo — lanky, top-hatted Mutt and tiny, bowler-wearing Jeff — as they outfit themselves in New York before sailing to Europe aboard the Lusitania. They buy hats, raid a gents' furnishings shop for loud checked suits and polka-dot shirts, then strut past a clothing store before phoning friends dockside. Fisher drives the gag through visual contrast: the men emerge increasingly overdressed, convinced they'll 'look like a rum for class' in London. Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff, launched in 1907, was among the first daily newspaper strips to use recurring characters in serialized continuity — a structural leap that directly shaped the comic book format inherited from syndicated newspaper pages.