Bringing Up Father — buf371224

Four panels follow Jiggs, the Irish-immigrant social climber created by George McManus, as he arrives at his office to find a new secretary — hired by his domineering wife Maggie — who deflects every question about her salary by noting she already answered it. The final panel delivers the strip's signature gag: Jiggs sent airborne, stars bursting, a pot implying Maggie's off-panel wrath. McManus's art is immediately recognizable — fluid Art Deco linework, exaggerated duck-bill mouths, patterned blacks giving depth without halftone wash. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* ran until 2000, making it one of the longest continuous strips in newspaper history. McManus's refined panel grammar — sequential action, integrated speech balloons, recurring cast — fed directly into the comic-book format that emerged in the mid-1930s from reprinted newspaper dailies exactly like this one.