Polly and Her Pals — 1917-05-12

Six panels track a domestic comedy: a woman relays that Pa's twin brother is coming to stay and urges secrecy; Pa, in top hat and cane, is waylaid by the ruffled, rotund figure labeled *Uncle Luke*, who demands a goodbye kiss before Pa heads downtown; Pa reluctantly submits to a loud SMACK!, staggers away singing "La-da-da," and tumbles through a doorway with a final PLOP! Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in the *New York Evening Telegram* in 1912. It ran for decades and became increasingly bold in design — cubist backgrounds, syncopated linework — while this early daily strip already shows his gift for physical escalation across panels, the visual grammar of comics that Outcault, McManus, and Sterrett's generation codified into the art form the comic book would later inherit.