Merry Christmas from George McManus!

I came across this Christmas art by George McManus this morning at The Bristol Board (where you can see a larger version of it).  The art which features McManus’ character Jiggs from his beloved comic strip Bringing Up Father sure brought back a lot of good memories.

I loved reading Bringing Up Father when I was a kid. And I wasn’t alone.  Bringing Up Father was published in newspapers for 87 years, from January 12, 1913, to May 28, 2000!  It spawned plays, (on and off Broadway), a radio series, 9 animated silent shorts, three live-action two reel shorts, several live-action feature films, three different comic book series as well as books collecting and reprinting the newspaper strips.

While the strips were funny, McManus’ art was a joy and the combination of the two were impossible (at least for this guy) not to love.  I had a chance to purchase a strip or two (even a Sunday page) back in my college days when I hung out at Jim Ivey’s Cartoon Museum.  Sadly, they were out of my price range, but I did enjoy the chance to hold the originals.