Bringing Up Father — buf430905f

Geo. McManus's *Bringing Up Father* began in 1913 and ran for decades, making it one of the longest-lived strips in American newspaper history. This Sunday page follows Jiggs — the round, hapless husband — ordered by his imperious wife Maggie to clean the house and wash the dog. Across twelve panels the gag escalates in McManus's signature slapstick cascade: the dog drenches him, mopping spreads filth, the vacuum explodes in a coal-black cloud, and Jiggs naps through the chaos only for Maggie to return, horrified. McManus's clean line, expressive silhouettes, and precise panel-to-panel timing exemplify the visual grammar that Sunday broadsheet artists invented — recurring characters, sequential action, speech balloons — the direct ancestor of the comic book format.