From the exhibition
Bringing Up Father — buf400406
· c. April 6, 1940 (King Features Syndicate)

Four panels track Jiggs, the parvenu Irish-American social climber created by George McManus, as he rushes from his mansion to catch a train — only to miss it. A bellhop warns him he forgot his grip; Jiggs blusters through a busy street clutching luggage and cane; he arrives at the station to find Maggie waiting beside a *Corned Beef and Cabbage Today* sign; the final panel shows the couple resigned, heading back to the hotel. McManus's draftsmanship is Art Nouveau-inflected, all sinuous architecture and hatched check patterns. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* ran in hundreds of papers worldwide, its recurring domestic comedy and stable cast helping establish the blueprint — daily continuity, instantly readable character design, integrated speech balloons — that newspaper syndicates handed directly to the first comic-book publishers of the late 1930s.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain