Bringing Up Father — buf390804

Three panels follow the domestic sparring of Jiggs and Maggie, McManus's nouveau-riche Irish-American couple. Maggie, in an elaborate gown, anticipates being presented at the London royal court; Jiggs, squat and reluctant in formal dress, feigns ignorance about which suit he must wear — his 'What suit?' a classic slow-burn gag. McManus's line work is instantly recognizable: sinuous art-nouveau curves on the women's figures, chunky cross-hatching on Jiggs, ornate wallpaper patterns filling every background. Launched by Hearst's King Features in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* ran for over eighty years and was among the most widely syndicated strips globally. These newspaper dailies — with their locked panel grids, speech balloons, and recurring cast — formed the direct template from which the first comic books, essentially reprinted strips, were assembled in the early 1930s.