Bringing Up Father

George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* in 1913, and it ran for decades as one of the most widely syndicated strips in American newspaper history. This daily strip follows the recurring domestic comedy of Jiggs, a newly wealthy Irish-American, and his socially ambitious wife Maggie. Here, in five brisk panels, Jiggs is urged to return a dropped handkerchief to the imposing Miss Smith — his bad back, the absence of beer openers, and the handkerchief's forty-year-old lace all become quick-fire excuses. McManus's line work is fluid and theatrical, his characters drawn with bold silhouettes and expressive posture. The newspaper daily strip — not the comic book — invented the visual grammar of sequential panels, recurring characters, and speech balloons that cartoonists worldwide still use today.