Polly and Her Pals — 1922-06-03

Four panels, black ink, crosshatched suits and loose brushwork: a stout, balding father presses a bashful suitor—identified as Bobby—to propose marriage to his daughter. Bobby obliges with "I'll Say I Do!" The father then asks whether Bobby has prospects at his firm. Bobby confirms he does, then in the final panel reveals he holds "the lowest position in the place"—just above office boy. Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the Hearst syndicate, eventually pushing his figure drawing toward near-cubist distortion. Daily strips like this one, syndicated nationally via Newspaper Feature Service, formed the direct economic and formal model that 1930s anthology publishers repackaged as the first comic books.