Mutt and Jeff — 1910-01-31

Seven panels follow the tall, blustering Mutt and tiny top-hatted Jeff as they try to retrieve chips from a chimney pot. Jeff volunteers to climb down, forgets his rope, then encounters a hissing cat mid-shaft; the final panel erupts in a soot-cloud chaos. Fisher's linework is economical and confident — expressive silhouettes, motion lines, speech balloons carrying distinct voices for each character. *Mutt and Jeff*, launched in the *San Francisco Chronicle* in 1907, was among the first strips built around a consistent cast and serialized continuity, running six days a week. That daily rhythm — recurring characters, cliffhanger punchlines, visual shorthand readers learned to read — is the direct ancestor of the comic book page itself.