Bringing Up Father — buf400703

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* follows Irish-American social climber Maggie and her long-suffering husband Jiggs across three panels here: Maggie, elaborately hatted, announces her three brothers are coming to meet them at their arrival home; the middle panel shows a dark silhouetted reunion at a grand doorway; the final panel delivers the punchline — her brother Danny has been arrested, and the other two brothers, locked in a cell next to their father's, are equally cheerful about it. McManus's line is instantly recognizable: Art Nouveau flourishes on furniture and architecture, exaggerated female figures in towering hats, expressive rubbery faces. Launched in 1913, the strip ran for decades, its gag rhythms and recurring cast directly modeling the anthology reprint comics that became the first true comic books in the early 1930s.