Mutt and Jeff

Mutt and Jeff was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns." Historians regard Mutt and Jeff, originally entitled A. Mutt, as the first American newspaper cartoon published as a strip of panels, as opposed to a single panel, making it the first "comic strip" to successfully pioneer that since-common format.

The "Mutt and Jeff" comic strip remained in syndication until 1983, employing the talents of several cartoonists, chiefly Al Smith who drew the strip for nearly fifty years. The series eventually became a comic book, initially published by All-American Publications and later published by DC Comics, Dell Comics and Harvey Comics. Later it was also published as cartoons, films, pop culture merchandise and reprints.

In the series the character "Jeff" is the mascot of the Fairbury, Nebraska High School team, known as the "Fairbury Jeffs" or the "Jefferson County Jeffs."

Syndicated success

Mutt and Jeff (spies)

Mutt and Jeff were two Norwegian spies who worked for the United Kingdom and MI5 and were members of the Double Cross System.

In April 1941 two Norwegians, John "Helge" Moe (Mutt) and Tor Glad (Jeff) fetched up on a remote Aberdeenshire beach, having travelled by seaplane and rubber dinghy. They immediately turned themselves in to the local police as German spies. MI5 soon 'turned' them, assigning them their codenames, which were the names of a pair of cartoon strip characters (see Mutt and Jeff). 'Mutt and Jeff' is also rhyming slang for 'deaf'.

Mutt and Jeff's mission was supposed to be one of sabotage, as well as having a secondary intelligence role, reporting (via wireless) military locations, deployments and civilian morale. MI5 used Mutt and Jeff's radio sets to relay false information, leading the Germans to believe that the United Kingdom intended to invade Norway (this activity was a component of Operation Fortitude). To ensure the German handlers did not suspect Mutt and Jeff of having sold out, MI5 arranged for fake sabotage operations - supposedly the work of the pair - to take place, in one case going so far as to set off a controlled explosion at a power plant which was widely reported in the local media as a genuine attack.

Mutt and Jeff (disambiguation)

Mutt and Jeff may refer to: