Polly and Her Pals — 1917-08-02

Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 as a Sunday feature for the New York Evening Telegram, and this 1917 daily strip shows the comic already in confident command of its recurring cast. The strip's title character rarely appears here; instead Pa dominates all four panels, his knobby knees the engine of the gag. A shorter companion insists Pa's legs are the worst in the world; Pa protests; two elegantly dressed tall men in a doorway deliver the punchline, conceding Pa's knees are unmatched in the city. Sterrett's draftsmanship is angular and expressive, the figures slightly grotesque, the speech balloons nested economically within ruled panels. These syndicated newspaper dailies — circulating nationwide via Newspaper Feature Service — were the direct ancestors of the comic book, establishing the sequential panel, the recurring character, and the balloon-driven joke as durable American vernacular art.