From the exhibition
Bringing Up Father — buf400313
· March 13, 1940 (daily strip; copyright King Features Syndicate)

George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* in 1913, making it one of the longest-running strips in American newspaper history. This March 1940 daily follows the familiar domestic rhythm: Jiggs, the Irish immigrant turned nouveau-riche, muses aloud about Washington politics while his wife and a companion swoon over a handsome man on the street — revealed in the final panel to be Will E. Runn, a congressional candidate whose campaign poster provides the punchline. McManus's draftsmanship is elegant and assured: fluid pen lines, confident crosshatching, and expressive figures. Strips like this one, syndicated nationally and collected almost immediately into reprint pamphlets, directly seeded the comic-book format that would formalize in 1933–38.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain