Polly and Her Pals — 1922-02-15

Clifford Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* daily strip turns on a single domestic joke: Pa is accused of failing to applaud Pete's piano recital, insists he did clap — then delivers the punchline that he clapped his hands over his ears. Four lean panels carry the gag with economical precision: a bowing performer, a doorstep argument between Pa and Ma, an escalating he-said/she-said, and a deflating confession. Sterrett's angular linework and expressive caricature anticipate the Art Deco abstraction his Sunday pages would push further. Launched in 1912, *Polly* was among the newspaper strips whose daily serialization and recurring cast directly shaped what comics became — the panel grid, the speech balloon as narrative engine, and the returnable character as franchise were all forged in this daily newspaper workshop.