Mutt and Jeff — 1908-08-16

Seven horizontal panels follow the lanky, top-hatted Mutt and his short companion Jeff through a visit to an American Editorial Room, where Mutt demands to see the cartoonist who draws him. The gag builds on recursive absurdity—a comic-strip character complaining about his own strip—culminating in the editor calling the janitor and Mutt slinking off to bet $25 on Aronback anyway. Fisher's brushwork is loose and energetic; speech balloons carry the entire comedic load. Launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, *Mutt and Jeff* was among the first strips with a fixed cast appearing six days a week, directly anticipating the daily comic-book format and establishing the recurring-character serial as the dominant newspaper-strip model.