Polly and Her Pals — 16 September 1922

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* daily, titled "Ma Chooses the Lesser of Two Evils," runs four panels in which two stout neighbors debate whether to invite Maggie to their bridge game — she's a rotten player, they agree, but at least she won't sit down at the piano. Sterrett renders his characters in bold, rubbery lines with strong black-and-white contrast; the dialogue is phonetically spelled working-class vernacular, delivered entirely through speech balloons. Launched in 1912 in the *New York Evening Telegram*, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the first strips to develop a large, consistent supporting cast around a nominal lead. Its tightly composed panels and expressive figure work influenced a generation of cartoonists who would later populate the early comic books assembled from exactly such syndicated newspaper pages.