Polly and Her Pals — 1922-01-04

Four panels follow a small child who mispronounces 'dog' as 'dorg' — prompting Aunt Polly to spell out D-O-G, D-O-G in exasperation, only for the animal itself to knock her flat in the final panel, the child observing drily, 'Sawful like a dorg, ain't it.' Sterrett's draftsmanship is confident and loose: bundled winter figures, a rubbery animal with comic timing, and speech balloons that carry the whole rhythm of the joke. *Polly and Her Pals*, launched in 1912 in the *New York Evening Telegram*, became one of the most stylistically adventurous strips of its era. These daily and Sunday newspaper pages — syndicated nationally — were the direct material ancestors of the comic book, supplying the panel grid, recurring cast, and balloon-driven dialogue that defined the form.