Bringing Up Father — 1925-09-21

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* follows Jiggs, a nouveau-riche Irishman forever henpecked by his social-climbing wife Maggie. In this four-panel daily, Jiggs gloats that Maggie's week-long trip to the country means freedom — until she rattles off a punishing list of chores: cut the grass, paint the garage, clean the cellar, pay the bills. He asks, deadpan, "Is that all?" She gone, he watches her depart with relief — then immediately slumps, muttering he feels "blue an' lonesome." McManus drew his strips with elegant Art Nouveau linework, ornate backgrounds, and expressive silhouettes. Launched in 1913 and syndicated globally, *Bringing Up Father* exemplifies how newspaper comic strips — daily panels, recurring characters, speech balloons — directly invented the visual and narrative language that early comic books would inherit wholesale.