Polly and Her Pals — 1922-01-12

Four panels, titled *Pa Explains Why He's a Bum Shot*: Pa, bundled in winter gear and prone in the snow, fires three successive shots at a rabbit — *Ping*, *Pop*, *Bam* — while a dark-haired girl (Polly) reports each miss with increasing exasperation. In the final panel, Pa stands, cheerful and unrepentant, delivering his motto: "Live an' let live." Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the Hearst syndicate, and by the early 1920s had developed one of the most graphically inventive styles in American newspaper comics — bold blacks, fluid figure work, precise comic timing across panels. These syndicated daily and Sunday strips are the direct predecessors of the comic book form, their panel-and-balloon grammar shaping every page that followed.