Mutt and Jeff — 1908-04-27

Five panels of ink-and-wash cartooning unfold a running gag about an explosion: a bomb disguised as a hot-water bag, a goat's egg capable of detonating accidentally, a figure knocked skyward by a dice-shaped blast, a pompous Russian secret-service chief opining on the wreck, and a detective dismissing the whole affair. Headlines and caption blocks crowd each panel, blending illustration with journalistic parody. Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff*, launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, was among the first strips built on a recurring cast and continuous storyline — daily sequences that trained readers in panel-to-panel narrative logic, the very grammar that would coalesce into the comic book format by the 1930s.