Bringing Up Father — buf390207

Four panels follow Jiggs, the Irish-immigrant social climber created by George McManus, as he lounges contentedly in a grand interior thinking he can finally eat regularly now that money has returned — only to discover his imperious wife Maggie has purchased a diet book and intends to starve him into propriety. McManus's draftsmanship is distinctive: Art Nouveau curlicues on furniture, elegantly cross-hatched shadows, and Maggie rendered in her trademark jewels and upswept hair. *Bringing Up Father* launched in 1913 and ran in King Features syndication for decades, reaching millions of readers whose daily newspapers were, collectively, the direct precursor to the comic book format — serialized characters, speech balloons, sequential panels, and recurring visual comedy that taught readers a new graphic literacy.