Polly and Her Pals

Four panels, black ink, daily format. Paw and Maw argue over Polly's aviation outfit; Paw insists flying is plain suicide, Maw counters that Col. Hawks of the U.S. Aviation Corps vouches for its safety. The strip pivots on a knockabout sight gag: when they bang on the door demanding Col. Hawks, a battered, bandaged figure on a cane opens it. Sterrett's linework is loose and kinetic, with dense crosshatching and expressive balloon lettering. Launched in 1912 in the *New York Evening Telegram*, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the earliest strips to feature a young woman as nominal lead, though Paw quickly became the comic engine. These syndicated daily strips—alongside Sunday pages by McManus, McCay, and Herriman—established the visual grammar that anthology reprint collections would crystallize into the comic book by the 1930s.