Mutt and Jeff

Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* began in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1907, making it one of the first daily newspaper strips to run continuously with the same recurring cast—a structural invention that helped define the comic strip as a narrative form. This Sunday page shows the familiar odd-couple dynamic: lanky, scheming Mutt bets short, hapless Jeff he cannot go twenty-four hours without eating. Jeff nearly holds out—declining a dinner invitation, watching Mutt try to call off the wager outside a restaurant—before surrendering to a roast duck supper. The final panels follow Jeff to bed, where a ticking alarm clock drives him to raid the kitchen at dawn. Fisher's draftsmanship is efficient and kinetic: clear silhouettes, expressive gesture, and speech balloons that carry all the comic timing.