Bringing Up Father

Four daily panels follow Jiggs, the stout, checked-trousers Irish-American social climber, through a comic misunderstanding about "going to the bar." Expecting his court case to arrive at his door, Jiggs is told by his lawyer he must appear at the courthouse bar — which Jiggs cheerfully misreads as an invitation to drink. The final panel lands the strip's signature physical punch: informed he may *challenge* any juror, Jiggs rolls up his sleeves to fight the smallest man on the bench. George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* in 1913, and its crisp line work, expressive balloon lettering, and repeating cast helped codify the domestic-comedy strip as a newspaper staple — the very format that syndicators would soon bind into pamphlets and sell as comic books.