Bringing Up Father — 1925-04-30

Four panels, black-and-white ink. Jiggs, the Irish-immigrant social climber in top hat and checked suit, stands in drizzle clutching an umbrella he bought hoping it would stop the rain — and it did. A shabbier acquaintance asks for the umbrella; Jiggs hands it over. Panel three: skies clearing, umbrella gone, Jiggs rueful. Panel four: rain resumes and Jiggs, drenched, mutters that all he wanted was an excuse to hit someone with it. McManus's line is fluid and confident — his figures round and expressive, backgrounds spare. *Bringing Up Father*, launched in 1913, ran for decades and was among the first strips adapted into film and stage productions, cementing the daily comic strip as America's popular serial narrative form.