Bringing Up Father — buf400229

Four panels follow Jiggs—George McManus's Irish-immigrant social climber—tangling with his imperious, hat-festooned wife Maggie and their son over money. The son demands cash, Jiggs lectures him about spoiling, the boy calls long-distance anyway, and Maggie erupts as the bill balloons from $200 to $350. McManus's ligne claire draftsmanship—sinuous Art Nouveau borders, spotted black dresses, virtuoso crosshatching—made *Bringing Up Father* (launched 1913) one of the most widely syndicated strips on earth. Sunday pages like this one are the direct ancestors of the comic book: their panel grids, speech balloons, and recurring cast handed future artists a complete visual grammar ready for stapling.