Bringing Up Father — buf401228

Four panels follow the eternal domestic sparring of Jiggs and Maggie: he brushes powder off his coat, she scolds him for making a mess; he asks where she'd like to dine, she waves the question away; he presses, she snaps back; finally, mid-lecture, she lets loose a thunderous sneeze — CA-CHEW!! — reducing the scene to comic chaos. George McManus's draftsmanship is ornate and assured, his figures round and expressive, his interiors filled with fussy detail. Launched in 1913, *Bringing Up Father* was among the longest-running American strips, syndicated worldwide. McManus pioneered the recurring-cast domestic comedy that shaped both newspaper comics and, directly, the reprint comic books of the 1930s — the format that became the modern comic book.