Mutt and Jeff — 1909-10-08

Eight slim panels track Mutt through a dry-goods shop where he intends to buy his wife a dress. A salesman models increasingly absurd gowns — one bristling with polka dots, another draped in ruffles — while Mutt rejects each until he seizes on a 300-button 'Moquette' number. Fisher's line is spare and rapid, the speech balloons packed tight, the comic timing built entirely through repeated poses and escalating price shock. *Mutt and Jeff*, launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, was among the first daily comic strips to feature a continuous cast, helping establish the recurring-character serial as newspaper staple — the direct ancestor of the comic book format that would follow three decades later.