Bringing Up Father — buf400426

Four panels: Maggie drives Jiggs out of the house — they're moving to another town — just as a census-taker arrives at the door. Jiggs, in his signature checked suit, plays dumb: *"I don't know — make me an offer."* George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* in 1913, making it one of the longest-running strips in American comics history. McManus's clean Art Nouveau line, expressive staging, and recurring domestic sparring between social-climbing Maggie and her nouveaux-riche, corned-beef-loving husband directly shaped the visual grammar later collected into comic books. The census gag — a topical hook, since the 1940 U.S. Census was underway that spring — shows how daily strips functioned as cultural shorthand, their characters as familiar to readers as neighbors.