Mutt and Jeff — 1908-09-23

Six horizontal panels follow the lanky, checkered-suited Mutt as he storms away from the racetrack swearing off gambling forever. He drags a reluctant Jeff into a Notary Public office, raises his right hand before a seated official, and solemnly swears never to bet on a horse again — only to be immediately accosted outside by a tip on a sure-winning queen. The strip's comedy hinges on the oath collapsing within seconds of its taking. Bud Fisher launched *Mutt and Jeff* in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, making it among the first American daily comic strips with a continuous cast and speech balloons driving narrative across sequential panels — the direct structural ancestor of the comic book page.