Polly and Her Pals — 1922-02-03

Four panels follow a domestic argument—two characters bicker ('I say it is dawgone it!' / 'An' I say it ain't!')—then a third figure bangs a door repeatedly chanting 'Tis! Taint!' in escalating absurdity, before a fourth character delivers the punchline: 'That's where you have the advantage of me, unk!' Sterrett's line work is angular and energetic, figures exaggerated into near-caricature. Launched in 1912, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the earliest strips to push panel composition toward genuine experimentation. Sterrett's Sunday pages would grow into Art Deco dreamscapes, but these daily strips show the foundation: tight gag structure, expressive lettering, and recurring family characters whose squabbles drove readers back each morning—the exact engine that made newspaper comics America's first mass sequential art.