Bringing Up Father — 1926-11-02

Four panels of George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* catch Jiggs mid-panic: he's carrying a bracelet he shouldn't have, runs straight into a cop, and barely talks his way out by selling the officer tickets to the Policemen's Ball — only to bolt in terror anyway, convinced a patrol wagon is coming for him. McManus's line work is clean and confident; his policeman is a solid block of authority against Jiggs's round, rumpled frame. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* ran until 2000, making it one of the longest daily strips in history. By 1926 the newspaper daily strip had already codified the visual grammar — sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, recurring cast — that syndicates would soon repackage into the first comic books.