Bringing Up Father — buf370201

Four panels trace a sidewalk nostalgia conversation that spirals into slapstick: two characters recall childhood summers chasing the sprinkling-wagon barefoot, a boy named Willie Gitwell trying to impress a girl by smoking a cigar, and a policeman nearly arresting a kid until learning he is a prize-fighter's brother. The final panel lands on a seated man shrieking "EEK!" at something offscreen. George McManus's line work is clean and confident — rounded figures, expressive silhouettes, meticulous crosshatching on the officer's dark uniform. *Bringing Up Father*, syndicated from 1913, was among the longest-running American strips and helped standardize the daily four-panel gag format, sequential speech balloons, and the recurring cast that would define comic-book storytelling for generations.