Polly and Her Pals — 1925-01-08

Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the Hearst syndicate, and by the mid-1920s it had become one of the most graphically inventive strips in American newspapers. This daily shows the office crossword-puzzle craze disrupting the workplace: employees argue over a clue while the boss fumes at the chaos; he spots a visitor at his private-office door and the final panel turns on a punning answer — 'four letters for triumph' — delivered with visual slapstick. Sterrett's draftsmanship is clean and confident, his speech balloons tightly integrated into the panel grid. Strips like this one were the direct raw material from which comic books would be assembled and reprinted through the 1930s, making newspaper dailies the true first chapter of the American comics form.