Bringing Up Father — 1925-08-26

Four panels track a classic *Bringing Up Father* con: Jiggs, the Irish immigrant made good, is caught by a banker who cheerfully informs Miss Jiggs that her father just borrowed two thousand dollars — the same two thousand Jiggs had just claimed as savings. McManus draws with confident Art Nouveau curves, plaid suits rendered in hatched ink, and speech balloons that flow naturally from each figure. The strip launched in 1913 and ran until 1954, becoming one of the most widely syndicated dailies in the world. Strips like this one — daily and Sunday pages distributed by wire syndicates — were the direct commercial and formal ancestors of the comic book, establishing panel sequencing, recurring casts, and the visual shorthand that defined the medium.