Mutt and Jeff — 1908-09-06

Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* began as a daily racing-tip strip in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, making it among the first strips to run continuously with the same cast — a founding moment in comics history. This Sunday page follows the hapless Mutt through a gambling loss, then a counting routine as he cadges rent money, with Jeff appearing to share in a final windfall of theater tickets and food. Fisher's visual shorthand is already assured: expressive silhouettes, rhythmic panel repetition to carry a single gag across multiple beats, and speech balloons whose size telegraphs emotion. The strip's daily continuity and recurring characters established the template that newspaper syndicates — and eventually comic books — would industrialize for the next century.