Bringing Up Father

Four panels track Jiggs's attempt to hide a phone call from his formidable wife Maggie. Caught mid-conversation, he has Jerry tie him to the sofa as alibi; Maggie finds him 'helplessly' bound, then asks him to help her downstairs. He gallantly offers to go first — and the final panel shows him tumbling headlong down the staircase, exclamation marks flying. McManus's line work is fluid and assured, his figures rounded and expressive, his comedic timing built entirely through posture and balloon placement. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* became one of the most widely syndicated strips in the world, its recurring cast and sequential panel grammar directly shaping the anthology reprint pamphlets that would become the modern comic book.