Bringing Up Father — buf390403

Four panels follow Jiggs — the Irish-immigrant social climber in top hat and waistcoat — seated at home, then in conversation with a dapper stranger at a bar. The visitor claims to be searching for someone whose name he forgot; Jiggs, deadpan, turns out to be that very person. The final panel closes on Jiggs wishing Maggie's lazy brother were back — the punchline hinging on domestic irony. George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* for King Features in 1913, running it until his death in 1954. McManus's clean Art Nouveau linework, precise cross-hatching, and fluid balloon placement made the strip a formal model for generations of cartoonists. Daily newspaper strips like this one were the direct material reprinted as early comic books, making them the literal foundation of the medium.