ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Bringing Up Father — buf390225

· ca. 1939 (copyright date visible in strip)

Bringing Up Father — buf390225
Three panels of George McManus's *Bringing Up Father*, the strip that ran continuously from 1913 until 2000. A woman lectures a round-headed man about apologizing to her brother; two rabbit-costumed figures—likely revelers or costumed characters—discover a sleeping man they've unwittingly hauled in a small wagon labeled 'SPEEDY,' unable to rouse him. McManus's line work is fluid and assured, blending domestic comedy with slapstick. *Bringing Up Father*, syndicated by King Features, reached tens of millions of readers daily and exemplifies the newspaper strip format—sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, recurring cast—that directly seeded the first comic books, which were initially just reprinted newspaper pages bound between covers.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain