Bringing Up Father — buf370309

Four panels follow the unnamed wife in mid-telephone affectation—pearls, couch, exaggerated society accent ('Oh-yaws, my deah')—while husband Jiggs enters to find both wife and daughter performing put-on British mannerisms, complete with a monocle. His deadpan closing thought: whether to call the doctor for them or himself. George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* in 1913, running it daily and Sunday for over four decades. McManus's crisp ink line, decorative Art Nouveau room detail, and fluid balloon placement refined the visual shorthand American newspaper strips would pass wholesale into the first comic books of the late 1930s—panel rhythm, reaction beats, and recurring character contrast all traceable directly to his pages.