Bringing Up Father: From Sea to Shining Sea
In 1939, McManus sent the cast of Bringing Up Father—uncouth Irish-American paterfamilias Jiggs; his social-climbing wife, Maggie; and their daughter, Nora—on a 10-month trip across America to show Nora’s British husband his new country. The extended journey not only revitalized the strip; it gave McManus a chance to show off his extraordinary drawing ability. While the art-deco interiors in which the action generally occurs are handsome enough, the far-flung locations display the full range of his skills, especially in the Sunday color episodes set in such striking places as the Grand Canyon, Boulder Dam, and Times Square. McManus’ elegant artwork is why comics aficionados revere the strip, but it owed its long-running popularity to his talent as a humorist. Never straying far from the strip’s original premise—salt-of-the-earth Jiggs fights a rear-guard action against Maggie’s pompous aspirations—McManus kept the proceedings fresh enough to catch and hold readers throughout the 40 years he produced it, laying a foundation so solid that Bringing Up Father in others’ hands lasted 46 years after his death. --Gordon Flagg