From the exhibition
Bringing Up Father — buf401230
· December 30, 1940

George McManus's *Bringing Up Father* ran from 1913 to 2000, making it one of the longest-lived strips in American newspaper history. This four-panel daily follows the eternal domestic standoff between Jiggs — nouveau-riche Irishman who'd rather be at Dinty Moore's — and his socially ambitious wife Maggie. Here Maggie lectures him about appreciating their elegant home; daughter Nora arrives announcing a bridge engagement at Mrs. Pierre O'Jack's; Jiggs, caught flat-footed, bolts for his hat and hails a taxi. McManus's ligne claire draftsmanship — fluid figures, ornate interior detail, expressive silhouettes — directly shaped the visual shorthand later comic-book artists would standardize: sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, timing built purely through image and lettered word.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain