Bringing Up Father — buf390114

Three panels follow a domestic comedy of miscommunication: a mother receives a collect telegram from her son, reads it aloud to reveal he has gifted his wife a stove and ironing board on an installment plan, then wonders aloud whether Daddy has come into money. The women's reactions escalate from curiosity to exasperation to wry resignation — 'Ain't that nice?' *Bringing Up Father*, created by George McManus and syndicated from 1913, chronicled Irish-immigrant social climbers Maggie and Jiggs for decades. McManus's draftsmanship — fluid Art Nouveau line work, expressive curly-haired figures, clean panel borders, and tightly rhythmic balloon placement — exemplifies the daily newspaper strip format that proto-comic books directly reprinted, making strips like this one literal building blocks of the American comic book.