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George McManus Cartoonist
Nip249 Kiss Snookums
Just as spinach and Popeye are always associated with one another, corned beef and hash and Jiggs
were inseparable in the funny pages.
In fact, Jiggs' "daddy" was also inseparable from the funny pages.
A cartoonist at 16, George McManus' first comic strip was not about Jiggs. It was about The Newlyweds
and Their Baby (1904- 1912). When McManus changed syndicates, he renamed the family oriented
feature Their Only Child. He abandoned it, however, when his masterpiece struck pay dirt. It would
reappear as Jiggs" co-feature in the 1930's as Snookums.
McManus' second strip didn't feature Jiggs either. In the short-lived Nibsy the Newsboy (1905- 1906) he
transformed New York City into a fairyland and street-wise parody of another famous strip, Little Nemo.
George McManus' masterpiece was Bringing Up Father (1916- ) and Jiggs, an Iris bricklayer who won
the Irish sweepstakes.
Bringing Up Father was a broad but gentle caricature of immigrants and the new rich in America.
Maggie, his snooty wife, played second fiddle to her immigrant, and despite all of her efforts to refine
him, she could never get the corned beef and hash out of Jiggs.
McManus' distinctive design influenced art was simple and powerful. (Patterns like checker- boards
and herringbone were everywhere). Even though Jiggs, Maggie and many of their friends looked like
shaved monkeys, it was not because McManus lacked artistic talent. He was a master cartoonist.
McManus' comic book work includes Bringing Up Father (Kin& 1917, Cupples & Leon, 1919-1934), The
Trouble of Bringing Up Father (Embee, 1921), Four Color #37 (Dell), and Large Feature Comic #9 (Dell).
His work has also appeared in many comic strip anthologies including The Smithsonian Collection of
Newspaper Comics.
...Father has continued with varying success beyond McManus' death in 1954.
The work of George McManus is very highly recommended.
Published over many years, some titles may be difficult to locate. A price guide or comics dealer will
help. Comic book shops, mail order companies, trade journals and comics conventions are best
sources. Prices vary widely; shop around.
-- Michael Vance
George McManus was born in St.Louis, Missouri on January 23, 1884. In 1900, when he was just 16
years old he became both the fashion editor and a cartoonist for the St.Louis Republic. At the Republic
he created "Alma & Oliver", his first comic strip.
He went to New York in 1904 and joined Joseph Pulitzer's "The World", where he would create several
different strips for the next eight years. These strips are largely forgotten, but a couple of them,
notably "Cheerful Charley" and "Panhandle Pete" are remembered for their wit. He also created a strip
in 1904 called "The Newlyweds" which he would revive several times over the next dozen years under
different titles, in part due to experimentation and in part to his leaving the World for Hearst's "Journal
American" in 1912.
At the Journal he created several other strips, and it would be these that he is most remembered for.
"Spareribs & Gravy" about a Mutt & Jeff team of world explorers, which was quite a funny strip; "Rosie's
Beau"; and finally the immortal "Bringing Up Father" starring the unflappable Maggie and the ever
mischievous Jiggs, which began in 1913 as an intermittent daily strip before establishing permanent
status in 1916. The first Sunday episode appearing on April 14, 1918.
Bringing Up Father was a conceptual burlesque of American life in the early part of this century. Maggie
was an ordinary washlady and Jiggs a mason when the couple wins the Irish sweepstakes and become
rich. Though Maggie's snobbery might have fit nicely into her mansion, Jiggs on the other hand never
pretended to be anything but a simple Irishman wanting to drink an ale at Dinty Moore's tavern and play
poker at his friend's home. These opposites quite frequently led to the tossing of a rolling pin at Jiggs'
head, and Jiggs' need to hide his many transgressions from his over vigilante wife.
McManus was a magnificent humorist, and his daily offerings were joys to read, but there was more to
this strip than humor! One of the most striking characteristics of the strip was the outstanding Art Deco
backgrounding. Large chandeliers, flowing staircases, modernist designs and fabulous decorations
were placed carefully throughout, and if you looked closely at the pictures on the walls you could see
the characters within them moving and changing.
The resulting combinations of art, design and wit made Bringing Up Father one of the most popular
comic strips of all time and appeared on the first page of Hearst's comic section for many years. It is
reported to be the first comic strip that achieved fame worldwide.
In the 1920's, a play called "Father" made a tour of the country and McManus played the lead character
in some of it's productions.
In the forties, McManus turned over most of the artistic chores over to cartoonist Vern Greene, the
former artist of the Shadow daily strip and brother of DC comic artist Sid Greene.
McManus died October 22, 1954 in Santa Monica, California
Nip249 Kiss Snookums
Just as spinach and Popeye are always associated with one another, corned beef and hash and Jiggs
were inseparable in the funny pages.
In fact, Jiggs' "daddy" was also inseparable from the funny pages.
A cartoonist at 16, George McManus' first comic strip was not about Jiggs. It was about The Newlyweds
and Their Baby (1904- 1912). When McManus changed syndicates, he renamed the family oriented
feature Their Only Child. He abandoned it, however, when his masterpiece struck pay dirt. It would
reappear as Jiggs" co-feature in the 1930's as Snookums.
McManus' second strip didn't feature Jiggs either. In the short-lived Nibsy the Newsboy (1905- 1906) he
transformed New York City into a fairyland and street-wise parody of another famous strip, Little Nemo.
George McManus' masterpiece was Bringing Up Father (1916- ) and Jiggs, an Iris bricklayer who won
the Irish sweepstakes.
Bringing Up Father was a broad but gentle caricature of immigrants and the new rich in America.
Maggie, his snooty wife, played second fiddle to her immigrant, and despite all of her efforts to refine
him, she could never get the corned beef and hash out of Jiggs.
McManus' distinctive design influenced art was simple and powerful. (Patterns like checker- boards
and herringbone were everywhere). Even though Jiggs, Maggie and many of their friends looked like
shaved monkeys, it was not because McManus lacked artistic talent. He was a master cartoonist.
McManus' comic book work includes Bringing Up Father (Kin& 1917, Cupples & Leon, 1919-1934), The
Trouble of Bringing Up Father (Embee, 1921), Four Color #37 (Dell), and Large Feature Comic #9 (Dell).
His work has also appeared in many comic strip anthologies including The Smithsonian Collection of
Newspaper Comics.
...Father has continued with varying success beyond McManus' death in 1954.
The work of George McManus is very highly recommended.
Published over many years, some titles may be difficult to locate. A price guide or comics dealer will
help. Comic book shops, mail order companies, trade journals and comics conventions are best
sources. Prices vary widely; shop around.
-- Michael Vance
George McManus was born in St.Louis, Missouri on January 23, 1884. In 1900, when he was just 16
years old he became both the fashion editor and a cartoonist for the St.Louis Republic. At the Republic
he created "Alma & Oliver", his first comic strip.
He went to New York in 1904 and joined Joseph Pulitzer's "The World", where he would create several
different strips for the next eight years. These strips are largely forgotten, but a couple of them,
notably "Cheerful Charley" and "Panhandle Pete" are remembered for their wit. He also created a strip
in 1904 called "The Newlyweds" which he would revive several times over the next dozen years under
different titles, in part due to experimentation and in part to his leaving the World for Hearst's "Journal
American" in 1912.
At the Journal he created several other strips, and it would be these that he is most remembered for.
"Spareribs & Gravy" about a Mutt & Jeff team of world explorers, which was quite a funny strip; "Rosie's
Beau"; and finally the immortal "Bringing Up Father" starring the unflappable Maggie and the ever
mischievous Jiggs, which began in 1913 as an intermittent daily strip before establishing permanent
status in 1916. The first Sunday episode appearing on April 14, 1918.
Bringing Up Father was a conceptual burlesque of American life in the early part of this century. Maggie
was an ordinary washlady and Jiggs a mason when the couple wins the Irish sweepstakes and become
rich. Though Maggie's snobbery might have fit nicely into her mansion, Jiggs on the other hand never
pretended to be anything but a simple Irishman wanting to drink an ale at Dinty Moore's tavern and play
poker at his friend's home. These opposites quite frequently led to the tossing of a rolling pin at Jiggs'
head, and Jiggs' need to hide his many transgressions from his over vigilante wife.
McManus was a magnificent humorist, and his daily offerings were joys to read, but there was more to
this strip than humor! One of the most striking characteristics of the strip was the outstanding Art Deco
backgrounding. Large chandeliers, flowing staircases, modernist designs and fabulous decorations
were placed carefully throughout, and if you looked closely at the pictures on the walls you could see
the characters within them moving and changing.
The resulting combinations of art, design and wit made Bringing Up Father one of the most popular
comic strips of all time and appeared on the first page of Hearst's comic section for many years. It is
reported to be the first comic strip that achieved fame worldwide.
In the 1920's, a play called "Father" made a tour of the country and McManus played the lead character
in some of it's productions.
In the forties, McManus turned over most of the artistic chores over to cartoonist Vern Greene, the
former artist of the Shadow daily strip and brother of DC comic artist Sid Greene.
McManus died October 22, 1954 in Santa Monica, California
