Polly and Her Pals — 1922-05-06

Four panels track a domestic comedy of irony: Paw and Ma learn Polly earned a thousand dollars; the source, an article condemning the cruelty of trapping wild animals, prompts disbelief; then Polly appears in the doorway modeling a sable stole, asking if it isn't the sweetest fur they've ever seen. Sterrett's linework is confident and elastic, his figures rounded and expressive, the punchline delivered entirely through the final image. Launched in 1912 for the Hearst syndicate, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the earliest newspaper strips built around a recurring cast of family characters — the format that trained readers to follow serialized visual narrative and seeded the anthology reprint comics of the 1930s that became the comic book proper.