ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Bringing Up Father — buf400802

· ca. August 1940 (King Features Syndicate)

Bringing Up Father — buf400802
George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* — starring the nouveau-riche Jiggs, forever dreaming of corned beef and cabbage while Maggie wields a rolling pin — ran from 1913 to 1954, making it one of the longest-lived comic strips in American newspaper history. This four-panel daily shows Jiggs wilting in summer heat, wishing for an Eskimo with an ice plant, while Maggie announces her brother Danny has landed a job selling electric stoves — demonstrated, catastrophically, on the spot. McManus's elegant Art Deco linework, expressive silhouettes, and tightly timed panel rhythm exemplify how newspaper strips codified the visual grammar — speech balloons, sequential panels, recurring cast — that comic books would inherit wholesale.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain