Bringing Up Father

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* debuted in 1913 and ran for decades, following Jiggs—a newly rich Irish immigrant who craves corned beef and pool halls—and his socially ambitious wife Maggie. In this four-panel daily, Jiggs resolves to stay home with his family since the servants are out, only to be lectured by Maggie about his Monday-night social club, then caught sneaking out anyway; the cat's sardonic *Me-ow!* delivers the punchline. McManus's draftsmanship is elegant and assured—ornate wallpaper, decorative gowns, confident brushwork—rooted in the Art Nouveau he absorbed from Mucha. The strip's recurring domestic-comedy structure, speech balloons, and panel-to-panel timing directly shaped the visual grammar inherited by every comic book that followed.