Bringing Up Father — 1925-04-24

Four panels follow Jiggs, the Irish-immigrant social climber, as a servant delivers medicine for his 'sleepy sickness.' His wife Maggie, overheard on the telephone, rattles off a list of chores she expects him to complete before escorting her to the opera. Jiggs, catching wind of her plans, feigns continued illness and retreats to the sofa — keeping his 'spring fever' intact. McManus draws in his signature Art Nouveau-inflected line: decorative wallpaper, plaid suits, expressive silhouettes. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* ran in syndication for over eighty years, reaching hundreds of papers worldwide. Strips like this one — self-contained daily gags with recurring characters and speech balloons driving narrative — were the direct precursor to the comic book format that would coalesce commercially by the late 1930s.