Mutt and Jeff — "Nervine Queers the Spook Business"

Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* was America's first successful daily comic strip, launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907 and soon syndicated nationwide. This six-panel strip follows the lanky, fast-talking Mutt and his short, stout companion Jeff into a Spirit Medium's parlor. Mutt, primed with a patent nerve tonic called Nervine, demands the medium "bring on your spooks"; a ghost duly appears, only to be beaten senseless by the jittery, chemically fortified Mutt — who then can't stop swinging. Fisher's crisp ink line, expressive silhouettes, and brisk balloon-to-panel pacing defined the rhythms that comic books would inherit wholesale. Recurring characters, cliff-hanger continuity, and the comedy duo format all flow directly from strips like this one.