Bringing Up Father — buf390504

Three panels follow Jiggs, the nouveau-riche Irish-American patriarch, as he visits a toy department to buy an assortment of gifts for his son's baby. The shopkeeper obliges, and Jiggs departs loaded with an absurd armful of wind-up toys and novelties — only to find pedestrians staring and a small dog trailing him on the street. His rueful balloon reads: *'By golly — the way folks are starin' at me — I'm afraid to take these things home — I wish I didn't buy em now.'* McManus's draftsmanship is elegant: cross-hatched interiors, crisp balloon lettering, and expressive silhouette figures. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* was among the earliest strips to build a sustained cast and comedic continuity across daily and Sunday pages — the syndicated newspaper strip that directly seeded the comic-book format.