Polly and Her Pals — November 14, 1922

Four panels of Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* (launched 1912, King Features) deliver a classic sight-gag: Pa, tinkering under the hood of a rattletrap automobile, squirts oil into what he believes is the oil cup — but it is his companion's eye. The strip's visual rhythm is tight: escalating dialogue in jagged speech balloons, expressive body language, and a punch-line panel where the victim howls *"That was my ear, y' idiot!"* Sterrett pioneered a loose, angular draftsmanship that grew increasingly abstract through the 1920s–30s. Newspaper daily and Sunday strips like this one were the direct ancestors of the comic book, establishing panel sequencing, recurring cast, and the integrated word-and-image grammar that defined the form.