Polly and Her Pals — 1922-07-18

"Pa's Suspicions Are Verified" Four panels unfold on what appears to be a beach: a woman reacts in horror to overheard language; a male figure curses emphatically at an unseen tormentor; a confrontation erupts between Pa and a young suitor; and finally Pa, flattened and defeated, learns the young man's offense was merely wanting to swear *before* his daughter got the chance. Sterrett's linework is loose and kinetic, his figures rubbery and expressive. *Polly and Her Pals*, launched in 1912, was among the first newspaper strips to center a young woman while making her father the comic foil. Sterrett later became celebrated for cubist-influenced Sunday pages, but these dailies show his essential gift: compressed farce, rapid panel escalation, and a punchline that lands in eight words.