Polly and Her Pals — January 6, 1922

Clifford Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* runs four panels here as a classic domestic gag: Pa interrupts Ma mid-story with increasingly loud narration, culminating in daughter Polly snapping, "Y'needn't shout, Paw — I ain't deaf." Sterrett draws his figures with loose, expressive linework — patterned clothing rendered in bold crosshatch, exaggerated gestures that carry the comic timing. Launched in 1912 for the New York Evening Telegram, *Polly* became one of the longest-running strips of the century. Sterrett's later Sunday pages pushed toward Art Deco abstraction, influencing generations of cartoonists. These dailies, syndicated nationally, were the direct precursor to the comic book: when publishers collected such strips into pamphlets in the 1930s, the modern comic book format was born.