Mutt and Jeff — 1908-09-04

One of the earliest recurring daily comic strips in American newspaper history, Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* helped establish the visual conventions the medium still uses: sequential panels read left to right, speech balloons anchored to individual characters, and a cast that returns strip after strip. Here, the lanky Mutt and his short companion Jeff walk the streets of New York, trading insults with strangers — a lunch-counter man, a spotted-dress woman, a child — each panel landing a quick gag on physical appearance. Fisher's loose pen line and broad caricature characterize the strip's energy. Launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, *Mutt and Jeff* ran daily before Sunday color pages existed, making it a direct ancestor of the comic book format that would crystallize by the 1930s.