ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Mutt and Jeff — "Mutt Crosses the Pond for His Vacation"

· c. 1909–1910, Harry Conway 'Bud' Fisher

Mutt and Jeff — "Mutt Crosses the Pond for His Vacation"
A single wide panel shows the lanky, big-nosed Mutt striding toward a sign reading "To the Big Vacation", gripping the tiny, top-hatted Jeff under one arm and a stuffed bag under the other. Mutt exclaims "Oh, you London Bridge!"; Jeff, dangling helplessly, hollers "Oh, you Kink of Denmark." A companion text block — signed *A. Mutt* — announces the duo sailing on the *Lusitania* for Europe. Bud Fisher launched *Mutt and Jeff* in the *San Francisco Examiner* in 1907, making it one of the first true daily comic strips with a recurring cast. Its horizontal format, integrated speech balloons, and serialized gags directly shaped the visual conventions that daily newspaper strips — and eventually comic books — would inherit wholesale.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain