Polly and Her Pals — February 14, 1922

Four panels, tight and dry: an older man brags to the tall, fashionable Polly that her friend reported she'd been skating — yes, his *first time* on skates. A dapper Mr. Perkins confirms it's a great sport. Polly's brother offers her a seat; she prefers to stand. Punchline: the old man admits he spent most of the afternoon sitting down. The gag turns entirely on the title's deadpan reveal. Clifford Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the New York Evening Telegram, later syndicated nationally. His crisp inkwork and increasingly abstract Sunday pages pushed newspaper comics toward genuine graphic art. These syndicated daily strips — with their recurring casts, sequential panels, and speech balloons — are the direct ancestors of the comic book form itself.