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Bringing Up Father is among the longest running comic strips in the United States, beginning in 1913 and running all the way to 2000. It revolved around an Irish family whose titular father, Jiggs, was everything one would expect from a stereotypical Irishman. Jiggs always had a cigar and loved to gamble and drink. George McManus, the creator, did not give Jiggs these qualities out of ignorance, however. Both of his parents were from Ireland, so he had a wealth of knowledge and experience in that area.

This strip (which just happens to be from the same day as yesterday's) is typical Jiggs behavior. The premise of Bringing Up Father as a whole is that Jiggs fell into a large amount of money by chance and moved to New York, but doesn't know how to deal with his fortunes and retains all of his working class attitudes. That's obvious here, as he gambles away all the money that he was supposed to spend on a Christmas gift for his wife. The upside is that he now knows how to play baccarat, though I'm not sure that's worth it.

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While Rube Goldberg was best known for his wacky contraptions, he was quite the prolific cartoonist, and had quite a few other comic strips over the years. One of the longest running was Boob McNutt, which revolved around a man with a good heart but with a less than stellar brain. It ran for nearly 15 years, and became a bit of a connection point between Goldberg's various strips. The titular characters in Goldberg's strip "Mike and Ike (They Look Alike)" were revealed to be Boob's uncles, Boob became acquainted with Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, who was the "inventor" of all of Rube Goldberg's many devices, and Boob even ran into Bertha the Siberian Cheesehound, which was the topper for the Boob McNutt strip.

The strip itself normally involved someone entrusting Boob with performing a particular task and his inability to do the task without causing destruction and disaster. He's always willing to help, and looks trustworthy enough, but in the end it never works out. Such is the case here. Personally, I blame the goat for this one. What was he even doing out in the back yard in the first place?

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The logic of children at its finest. It makes sense when you think about it, though I did have to think about it for a bit. I mean, the pole had to get there somehow, right? Of course, we know that the first man to place the pole up there must have been Santa Claus. Pop isn't that far off when he says that it was about ten years before this strip was published that anyone successfully reached it, though it might be closer to fifteen. The tradition of Santa Claus living there probably came about in the 19th century, so I'd say the answer to Jimmy's question is probably around 60 or 70 years.

This strip, unlike the one from yesterday, was actually done by Gene Byrnes, and when you compare the two you can certainly tell the difference. The line work in Byrnes' strips is much more crisp, and the hatching is exquisite. The ghost artists did a great job of capturing the feel of Byrnes' artwork, but it's no substitute for the real thing.

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Reg'lar Fellers, created by Gene Byrnes, first appeared under that name in 1920 and revolved around the gang of kids you see here. They were supposed to be suburbanites, but oddly enough speak exactly like kids from Byrnes' native New York City. The strip lasted until 1949, meaning this particular strip was one of the later ones that, while still signed by Byrnes, were not written or drawn by him. This one was ghosted by George Carlson. It was very popular in it's time, and spawned books, comic books, animated and live-action films, and a radio show. The strip is very charming and enjoyable, and definitely has a well-deserved place among the best of the comic strips about kids.

This one does bring up a good question, though: What does Santa Claus do the rest of the year? I don't imagine he's just sleeping the whole time, but if your job really only takes one night of the year, and you're a magical being, it must be difficult to fill the rest of the time.

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The problem with this, of course, is that you'll probably end up with frozen grape soda. If you actually want to drink it you'd have to plan in advance so you could thaw it out. Hopefully by then it won't be flat. Actually, the more I think about it, the worse of a plan this seems to be...

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It's actually getting kind of cold down here in Georgia, though not cold enough to do that. I do wonder why Sluggo carries a water pistol around with him in the wintertime, though. Maybe he planned on playing a prank on someone. Maybe Nancy's contrarian attitude saved her from being the recipient of that prank...

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You can never be too careful in the snow. You never know what projectiles could be hurled at you, intentionally or not. Nancy is right to prepare, though I'd expect she'd do the exercises as well as wear some kind of body armor. I know I would.

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Pee Wee is a smart businessman. You've got to find every way to save on overhead costs. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite understand supply and demand yet, I don't think.

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The past two years, I've posted Christmas themed comic strips during December, so I thought I'd make it a tradition and do it again this year. We start with a not necessarily Christmassy but definitely wintery themed Nancy strip. I love Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy, mostly because of its simplicity. After Bushmiller died in 1982, a few other creators have done admirable runs on Nancy, but none of them have the spirit of the original. Mark Lasky did the best at capturing the look of the artwork, but that was about it. I quite like Jerry Scott's version, but it might have been better served by being a separate comic strip entirely, because it certainly feels like it is. Guy Gilchrist, who does the strip currently, does fine, but it feels very generic. Bushmiller's is still the best. You might not think so from this fairly simple example, but you will as the month goes on.

This year, I also discovered the Scott McCloud invention Five Card Nancy, which I feel like I should have known about much earlier. It might be a nice game to play with your family on Christmas Eve or something. Also, if you don't want to go through the trouble of preparing physical cards, there's also a handy online version.