Mutt and Jeff — 1909-11-10

Eight slim panels trace a classic confidence-switch: lanky Mutt, fresh off election season, intercepts little Jeff carrying campaign-fund cash to the bank, redirects him on a "shortcut," pockets the $268, and ends up at a racetrack betting on Woodcraft. Fisher draws in a loose, economical ink line—elongated figures, minimal backgrounds, speech balloons carrying all the comedy. *Mutt and Jeff* began in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907 as the first true six-days-a-week newspaper comic strip with a recurring cast, making Fisher one of the architects of sequential visual storytelling. The strip's daily format—same characters, accumulating continuity—directly prefigured the comic-book page, proving that panels and balloons could sustain an audience across weeks, not just a single Sunday laugh.