Bringing Up Father — 1925-04-06

Four panels follow Jiggs's daughter announcing she's starting piano lessons; Jiggs, overhearing, mutters he hopes to see the teacher first—then, meeting a rotund, cheerful stranger outside, asks if he's the piano teacher. The man says, emphatically, he is not. Final panel finds Jiggs crouching miserably, wishing it were all over. McManus draws with confident ink line, plaid trousers, and expressive body language carrying the gag where words fall short. *Bringing Up Father* launched in 1913 and ran for decades, syndicated internationally by King Features. McManus refined the daily strip's rhythm—setup, complication, punchline across tight panels—that became foundational grammar for the comic book form that followed in the 1930s, assembled directly from such newspaper pages.