ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Bringing Up Father — 1925-07-03

· George McManus, 1925

Bringing Up Father — 1925-07-03
Four panels track Jiggs's domestic miscalculation: deciding his friends won't be at Dinty's, he announces to Maggie he'll stay home — only to begin a sentence she cuts short with *Shut up*, followed by a volley of hurled crockery that sends him scrambling. The strip closes with Maggie blocking the door, delivering her verdict. McManus's draftsmanship is fluid and assured — rounded figures, confident brushwork, expressive silhouettes. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* ran for nearly a century and was syndicated worldwide. Its recurring cast, compressed four-panel rhythm, and dialogue-driven gags helped codify the daily comic strip as a narrative form — the direct ancestor of the comic book page.

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