Polly and Her Pals

Four panels follow Neewah, the household's uniformed servant, who bristles at announcing a stranger—Mr. Pete Perkins of Pittsburgh—while wearing livery Polly insists upon. A doorbell scene, a formal announcement, and Polly's tearful collapse into Pete's arms carry the gag: Pa's generosity (the strip's headline) is implied offstage. Cliff Sterrett's linework is crisp and angular, his figures already showing the geometric stylization that would grow more pronounced through the 1920s. Launched as *Positive Polly* in 1912, the *New York Evening Telegram* strip was among the earliest newspaper comics to center a young woman as recurring protagonist. Such daily and Sunday strips—syndicated nationally, collected into pamphlets—directly seeded the comic-book format that would formalize by 1934.