Polly and Her Pals — Daily Strip

Four panels set at a rocky beach: two figures bobbing in heavy surf discuss whether Aunt Maggie's portrait proofs are any good — neither has seen them. A standing figure on shore repeats the gossip that the likenesses are wonderful yet Maggie has shown them to no one. The strip ends with someone frantically calling a cat, implying the proofs have been scattered or destroyed by the waves. Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for King Features, pioneering the recurring domestic-comedy cast that would define the American comic strip. His loose, fluid linework and expressive speech balloons — here rendered in bold black ink against churning water — exemplify the visual shorthand newspaper artists invented, conventions the first comic books would simply collect and reprint a decade later.