Bringing Up Father — buf401101

George McManus launched *Bringing Up Father* in 1913, and by 1940 it ran in hundreds of papers worldwide. This four-panel daily follows Jiggs—stout, top-hatted, eternally henpecked—as his daughter notices his cigar is out and offers a light, prompting wife Maggie's sharp disapproval. Jiggs then visits his doctor, who pronounces him physically and mentally sound; the final panel's punchline turns on the doctor's flattering comparison to Maggie. McManus's draftsmanship is elegant: cross-hatched backgrounds, fluid brushwork, and expressive balloon lettering that became a model for the medium. Strips like this one—syndicated Sunday pages and dailies reproduced cheaply on newsprint—were the raw material that publishers began collecting into pamphlets in the 1930s, literally inventing the comic book format.