Polly and Her Pals — 1922-02-09

Clifford Sterrett's daily strip delivers a tidy four-panel domestic farce: Ma suspects Pa is on the telephone sweet-talking the new neighbors rather than minding business. Pa, caught, pours on the charm — 'Oh darling, yer wanted on the wire right away, sweetheart!' — only to receive a rolling-pin wallop and protest he was merely 'kidding the neighbors.' Sterrett's expressive brushwork, kinetic sound effects ('Pop!'), and staccato balloon lettering show the strip's draftsmanship at full compression. Launched in 1912, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the earliest newspaper comics to develop a consistent ensemble cast across daily installments — the serialized recurring household that would become the structural backbone of the comic book format descending directly from syndicated newspaper pages.