Mutt and Jeff — 1909-10-11

Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* — here titled "With Mutt in New York — Little Jeff Has an Affinity" — unfolds across seven panels in Fisher's confident ink-line style: lanky, top-hatted Mutt enlists tiny Jeff to court a large woman on his behalf, wagering thirty pesos on the outcome. Jeff kneels, recites a flowery speech from a *Life of Jeanne d'Arc* book, and receives a wallop for his trouble. Fisher launched Mutt in 1907 in the *San Francisco Chronicle*, making it arguably the first daily comic strip with a recurring cast — a decisive step toward the narrative continuity and visual grammar (sequential panels, integrated speech balloons, stable characters) that would coalesce into the comic book form by the 1930s.