Bringing Up Father — 1929-07-16

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* — running since 1913 — follows nouveau-riche Irishman Jiggs, forever caught between his old saloon-going ways and the social ambitions of his wife Maggie. In this four-panel daily, a singing teacher named Mr. Dugan arrives claiming Maggie has resumed lessons; Jiggs, suspicious and muttering that he must 'git rid of this guy,' watches Maggie rage at the intruder; the final panel reveals Dugan has already fled — prompting the dry punchline that a man who runs that fast 'is some singer.' McManus's draftsmanship — sinuous Art Deco figures, fluid panel-to-panel staging, expressive silhouettes — exemplifies how the syndicated newspaper daily strip forged the visual language that direct-sales comic books would inherit wholesale by the late 1930s.