Mutt and Jeff — 1909-10-26

Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* began in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907 as a racing-tip strip starring the lanky, top-hatted Mutt alone; diminutive Jeff arrived the following year, and their double-act quickly syndicated nationwide. This strip — headlined *With Mutt in New York — He's Never Too Busy to Bet* — runs six panels tracking a mock detective hunt for one 'Otto Barnyard,' complete with a rogues'-gallery mug shot, a Cairo secret-service chief, and Little Jeff's punchline about finding Judge Gander's goat. Fisher's clean ink line, caricatured busts, and caption-plus-dialogue hybrid layout illustrate the daily newspaper strip's maturing grammar — the form whose collected reprints, sold at newsstands by 1910, became the direct commercial template for the modern comic book.