Mutt and Jeff — 1909-12-03

Bud Fisher's *Mutt and Jeff* ran as a daily newspaper strip from 1907, making it among the first comics built around a fixed cast of recurring characters — a formal leap that helped define the medium. This strip, headlined *Discretion Is the Better Part of Valor (Without 'Nervine')*, shows the lanky, hat-wearing Mutt vowing to confront a large tough who insulted him, fortified by a patent nerve tonic. Six panels track his swagger turning to capitulation: faced with the hulking stranger, Mutt folds entirely. Fisher's draftsmanship is economical — loose crosshatching, expressive silhouettes, speech balloons carrying nearly all the comedy. The strip's daily continuity and consistent characters were blueprints that newspaper syndicates, and eventually comic books, would follow for decades.