Bringing Up Father — buf370816

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* ran continuously from 1913 to 2000, making it one of the longest-lived strips in syndication history. This daily finds Jiggs, the Irish-immigrant social climber in his trademark top hat, proudly reading the manual for a new movie camera — only to accidentally film his wife Maggie in an unflattering moment, ending the experiment quickly. McManus's ligne claire draftsmanship, with its bold outlines, patterned fabrics, and art-deco interior details, influenced generations of cartoonists. The strip's recurring domestic comedy and stable cast of named characters exemplify the narrative conventions — sequential panels, speech balloons, visual punchlines — that newspaper syndicates perfected between 1895 and 1940 and that comic-book publishers would soon adopt wholesale as their structural foundation.