Mutt and Jeff — 1908-08-25

Six panels follow the lanky, top-hatted Mutt and his short companion Jeff as Mutt wins racing money and proposes a night at "the squabs." A woman singing "Yama Yama" on a wall catches their attention mid-route; Mutt abandons Jeff entirely to pursue her, leaving bets on "Rose Queen" trailing behind him. Bud Fisher launched *A. Mutt* in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1907—the first daily comic strip with a consistent cast—pioneering the horizontal multi-panel format, speech balloons as primary dialogue vehicle, and the comedic double-act built on physical contrast. These newspaper dailies, collected and reprinted, directly seeded the pamphlet format that became the comic book.