Bringing Up Father — buf390111

Four panels follow Jiggs, the top-hatted Irish-American social climber created by George McManus, as he assures his imperious wife he is rushing back to business — then detours to a tobacco shop for cigars — then strikes a triumphant pose entering his office — then promptly falls asleep at his desk, a snoring *Z* curling from his lips. McManus's line work is immaculate: crosshatched shadows, ornate wallpaper, and rounded balloon lettering that became industry templates. *Bringing Up Father* launched in 1913 in Hearst syndication and ran for decades, its daily and Sunday strips part of the newspaper page ecosystem that directly seeded the reprint comic books of the 1930s — physical collections of strips like this one that invented the format sold in newsstands worldwide.