Polly and Her Pals — Daily Strip

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* launched in 1912 and became one of the most formally inventive strips in American newspapers. This daily, signed by Sterrett and dated Jan. 20, centers on Paw — the strip's rotund, put-upon patriarch — being steered into a bookshop for something "snappy" and "up to the minute," only to be sold a puzzle book he finds maddening, retreating in the final panel to wish he'd stayed home with the telephone directory. Four tight panels carry the gag with clean escalation. Sterrett's bold crosshatching, exaggerated silhouettes, and expressive balloon lettering exemplify the draftsmanship newspaper syndicates exported worldwide — daily strips like this one directly supplied the page-layout conventions, recurring-cast structure, and visual shorthand that comic book editors codified in the late 1930s.