Polly and Her Pals — 1922-06-26

Four panels, black-and-white daily: Polly departs for the train station while her father Paw and the household guest Ed loll about. Ed, sprawled in a hammock, is chided for never offering Paw a cigar; Ed deflects with "a guy can't give wot he ain't got." Then someone spots Ed carrying a box of kimonos — not cigars — under his arm. The strip closes on a sight gag: the box holds Ed's trunks. Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912, making it one of the longest-running American newspaper comic strips. Its recurring domestic cast, tightly choreographed panel-to-panel beats, and speech-balloon timing helped codify the daily strip format whose reprinted pages, bound into pamphlets, would directly produce the comic book as a commercial form.