Bringing Up Father — buf371029

Four panels follow Jiggs, McManus's Irish-immigrant social climber, as his wife Maggie dispatches him to consult Judge Jagin—a distinguished lawyer who, she notes, passed the bar at twenty-one. Jiggs grumbles that Maggie controls everything, even his false teeth. He calls at the judge's home, only to be told Jagin left for the Hugh Pyalott Café. Final panel: Jiggs is already there, relaxed with drinks, phoning Maggie that he and the judge are deep in legal business. McManus's fluid brushwork, rounded figures, and elegant cross-hatching made *Bringing Up Father* (debuting 1913) one of the longest-running American daily strips—its recurring cast, sequential panels, and integrated speech balloons helping establish the visual vocabulary that newspaper comics handed directly to the first comic books.