Mutt and Jeff — 1908-09-25

Six panels follow the lanky, scheming Mutt and his tiny companion Jeff through a restaurant arithmetic disaster. Mutt brags about winning at gambling and invites Jeff to dinner; a waiter rattles off an elaborate order; Mutt miscalculates his winnings; they cancel everything; a bystander delivers the punchline. Fisher's line work is assured — expressive silhouettes, crowded speech balloons, and a clean left-to-right gag build that feels wholly modern. *A. Mutt*, launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in November 1907, was among the first strips to run daily with a continuous cast, helping establish the recurring-character serial as the newspaper comic's dominant form — the direct ancestor of the comic book.