Polly and Her Pals — "Even a Cat Can Catch It!"

Cliff Sterrett's four-panel daily follows the crossword-puzzle craze that swept America in 1924–25. Sam is asked whether his family has gone "nuts" over the puzzles; he vouches only for the cat's sanity — then the cat is shown hunched over a grid, filling it in, before erupting into nonsense syllables. Sterrett's loose, expressive linework and confident use of silhouette anticipate the Art Deco angularity that would define his Sunday pages. *Polly and Her Pals* (1912–1958) was among the first newspaper strips to develop a stable ensemble cast around a recurring household, helping establish the domestic-comedy continuity strip as a genre. Sterrett's formal inventiveness directly shaped the visual grammar — panel rhythm, reaction shots, timed punch lines — that comic books would inherit wholesale.