Polly and Her Pals — 1922-03-02

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* daily strip (here subtitled "Merely Does As He's Told") runs four panels tracking a conversation between two men about Mrs. Moore's repeated motor accidents. The gag pivots on the final panel: the husband reveals his wife claims never to have driven, yet she does *all* the driving when he's at the wheel. Sterrett's loose, rubbery linework and expressive figures — striped trousers, flailing arms, comically oversized hats — typify the draftsmanship that made his strip a critics' favorite. Launched in 1912, *Polly and Her Pals* helped establish the recurring domestic-comedy cast and the four-panel daily rhythm that newspaper syndicates would export directly into the first comic-book reprints of the 1930s.