Mutt was the tall one, Jeff the short one. They were a funny paper team for well over 70 years. Cartoonist Harry "Bud" Fisher invented Mutt first, in 1907, introducing him solo in a comic strip that ran daily on the sports page of the San Francisco Chronicle. Fisher originally used his strip to recount Augustus Mutt's misadventures in betting on the ponies. He also tossed in racing tips. In 1908, while spending some time in a lunatic asylum, Mutt encountered Jeff and the two teamed up. Though often credited with being the first daily newspaper strip, Mutt & Jeff had a few predecessors. It was, however, the first truly successful one.

Popular from the beginning, Mutt & Jeff eventually moved from the San Francisco Chronicle to William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner. Eventually the shrewd Fisher acquired ownership of his feature and, with the aid of the Bell...