Polly and Her Pals — April 22, 1922

Four horizontal panels follow a deadpan exchange between Polly and a visitor claiming to be a stage actor now chasing work in silent films. Asked about silent drama experience, he reveals he spent seven years on stage without ever speaking a line — then adds, sheepishly, that he's 'awful used to actin' without audiences.' Sterrett's draftsmanship is already confident: loose cross-hatching, expressive rubber-limbed figures, and speech balloons that drive the comedic timing panel to panel. Launched in 1912, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the earliest daily strips to center a young woman protagonist, and Sterrett would later push its Sunday pages toward near-abstract Art Deco geometry. Such syndicated dailies, printed by the millions, established the sequential panel format that comic books would directly inherit.