Bringing Up Father — buf401127

Four panels follow Jiggs — McManus's Irish immigrant turned reluctant millionaire, identifiable by his top hat and cigar — as he talks to a bank president, then meets a crowd of astonished acquaintances after apparently purchasing property at 'Newit-by-the-Sound.' The gag lands on the crowd's incredulous reaction: *'Are you sure he owns it?'* McManus's line work is fluid and assured, characters rendered with bold outlines and crosshatched suits. Running from 1913 until McManus's death in 1954, *Bringing Up Father* helped standardize the domestic comedy strip format — sequential panels, speech balloons carrying the full comedic load, a recurring cast — the same conventions that syndicating newspapers exported directly into the first comic book reprints of the 1930s.