Polly and Her Pals — 1925-01-15

Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the New York Evening Telegram, eventually syndicating it nationwide and earning a reputation for geometric, almost cubist Sunday page design. This daily strip follows Pa — rotund, checkered-suited, cane in hand — who spots 'The Cuckoo Nest,' a boarding house built for crossword-puzzle addicts ('goin' bugs'). A uniformed landlord pitches light, airy rooms with a dictionary in every room; Pa counts the family — Maw, Maggie, Polly, Delicia, Ashur, Neewah — calls out 'Gimme six!' and signs the lease. The four-panel gag is crisp: setup, sales pitch, headcount punchline, payoff. Sterrett's clean ruled panels and expressive balloon lettering exemplify the daily newspaper strip format that directly fed the reprint comic books of the 1930s.