Bringing Up Father

Bringing Up Father (Educating dad in some Spanish-speaking countries) is a newspaper strip created by George McManus for King Features Syndicate which was published for the first time on January 12, 1913. Although its title could be translated into Spanish as Educando a papá, it was published by the Argentine newspaper La Nación with the title of Small delights of conjugal life and more popularly known in Spanish by the name given to its protagonists: Trifón y Sisebuta (Pancho y Ramona in Mexico).

After McManus' death in 1954, the strip was drawn by other artists. Although McManus' former assistant Zeke Zekley was expected to take over, King Features Syndicate chose to replace him with Vernon Greene. Hal Campagna replaced Greene after his death in 1965, and Frank Johnson replaced Campagna in 1980. The strip was canceled in 2000, after 87 years of uninterrupted publication in the American press.

Description

The strip follows the adventures of an immigrant of Irish origin in the United States, Jiggs (Trifón or Pancho in translation), a middle-class man who suddenly becomes a millionaire But he doesn't want to give up his old friends or his old ways, much to the dismay of his wife, Maggie (Sisebuta or Ramona), a neurotic and conceited social climber delighted with his new situation and that has a dominant character in the couple of this Family strip. Jiggs also hates the dysfunctional family of his wife, who have him too controlled and subjugated.

Genesis

In his creation, McManus was inspired by The Rising Generation, a musical comedy by William Gill that he had seen as a child at the Grand Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 19th century.

One of McManus's friends, James Moore, was convinced that he had inspired the character Dinty Moore, owner of Jiggs' favorite tavern, so he changed the name of his place to Dinty and founded in life a real restaurant chain and a successful canned food company that are still in existence today.

Assessment and influence

The filmmaker Federico Fellini considered it, along with other American humor comic strip classics such as The Katzenjamer Kids (1912), an unquestionable inspiration for certain settings and characters by Charles Chaplin.

Editions in Spanish

The strip was published for the first time in Spain in the supplement Los Chicos (1929-) of El Mercantil Valenciano under the title Zebulón y familia.

In Chile it was published for the first time in the newspaper El Mercurio in 1922, under the name of "Amenidades del diario vivir", whose characters were Don Fausto and his wife Crisanta. Such was its popularity that a magazine was created under the name of Don Fausto that lasted from 1924 to 1964 and an animated film was made in 1924 called Life and Miracles of Don Fausto.

In Mexico, it was published for the first time in the weekly Jueves de Excelsior in the '40s under the name Educando a Papá, whose characters They were Don Pancho and his wife Ramona. The strip was popular until the 1950s.

In Venezuela it was published in the Dominical magazine that was inserted in the Últimas Noticias newspaper between the years '70s and '90s under the name of Educating Dad the characters were Pancho, Ramona, Benjazmín (the lazy), Barín (Trapito), Perico and Rosita.