Bringing Up Father — buf370413

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* ran from 1913 to 2000, making it one of the longest-lived strips in newspaper history. This four-panel daily deposits Jiggs, Maggie, and an avalanche of luggage onto a crowded dockside, the ocean liner *Pironania* looming behind them. Maggie preens for newsreel cameras; Jiggs frets about falling into the water; a ship's officer announces they must wait while a movie star decides whether to sail. McManus drew in a clean, confident line with Art Nouveau flourishes — decorative patterning on clothing, expressive crowd silhouettes — that distinguished his pages from rougher contemporaries. Strips like this one, syndicated daily to millions of readers, were the direct material reprinted as early comic books, literally inventing the format.