200904170406
Over at the NBM blog, Terry Nantier reminds us that a collection of BRINGING UP FATHER is on its way:

Well, we’re putting to bed the next great entry in our Forever Nuts collection of classic comic strips, Bringing Up Father, and it looks gorgeous. The strips have been meticulously restored and we end up with a colorful foreword by Bill Blackbeard, short but quite sweet, and a great intro by R.C. Harvey who gives us all we could want to know about McManus and this seminal strip in the history of comics.

And if that weren’t enough, we have quite a few annotations/footnotes at the end of the book that explain references in the strips. Allan Holtz, who worked on this with us did painstaking research. His full set of notes even beyond what we culled for the book will be posted up online when the book is out.


BRINGING UP FATHER was the creation of George McManus, and it’s probably familiar to many readers since it ran until 2000. The early strips — it began in 1913 — were stupendously drawn in a clear line style rarely equaled. The broad humor included Jiggs, a nouveau riche Irishman; Maggie, his surly wife, who was quite free with the rolling pin; and Nora, an inexplicably realistically drawn hot young flapper. We could never figure out why Nora looked normal, but we sure liked her clothes.

1 COMMENT

  2. Hergé’s “clear line” style was inspired on Bringing Up Father! He said it himself long ago.

    Some european artists still work on a similar style, albeit many steps removed to to the style’s evolution (think Jack Kirby and the modern super-hero artists). Here are some Olivier Schwartz pages from the next Spirou book (click on the cover and follow the arrows to see them, note that it will be replaced by another comic next month):
    http://www.dupuis.com/catalogue/FR/prepublication.html

    Best,
    Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

  3. Ah… MAD Magazine #17… “Bringing Back Father”. featuring a wonderful satire drawn, in part, by Bernie Krigstein (with the other half by Will Elder)!

    (That’s partly why I found “Home Alone” so shocking… cartoon violence in real life.)