Polly and Her Pals — 1925-01-23

Four panels introduce a visiting songwriter who claims to improvise lyrics on the spot, then launches into a wailing crossword-puzzle blues number—sending his listeners fleeing while a chorus cries 'Uncle! Uncle!' Cliff Sterrett's draftsmanship is already fully formed here: figures rendered in bold black silhouette, expressive rubber-limbed postures, and speech balloons that carry distinct vocal personalities. Sterrett began *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the New York Evening Telegram, eventually developing a Cubist-influenced background style unique in American newspaper cartooning. Daily comic strips like this one were the direct seedbed of the comic book: their recurring characters, sequential panel grammar, and syndication networks trained both readers and artists in exactly the visual language that would be bound and sold as comics after 1933.