Bringing Up Father — 1925-09-12

Four panels follow Jiggs and Maggie through a domestic comedy of phone calls and forgotten thoughts. A woman in an elaborate hat instructs someone to telephone Father the moment they arrive; a flustered figure makes the call confirming a safe arrival; Jiggs then addresses "my dear public" directly — having sent his family away to speak candidly — only to confess in the final panel, "By golly, now I've forgotten what it was!" McManus's confident brush line, decorative interiors, and expressive character silhouettes exemplify the polished daily-strip craft of the 1920s. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* was among the first strips syndicated internationally and helped standardize the recurring-character daily format that newspaper comics exported directly into the first comic books of the 1930s.