Polly and Her Pals — 1922-03-15

Four horizontal panels follow a suitor — the hapless Mr. Perkins — seeking Pa's blessing to marry Polly. Ma and a girlfriend gossip in panel one; Pa intercepts Perkins at the door, dismissing talk of honored family names with comic fury ('Not a whoop!'); the final panel lands the strip's title gag: Pa demands to know which bank will honor the name, and for how much. Sterrett's brushwork is loose and energetic, figures rounded and rubbery, speech balloons integrated naturally into the action. *Polly and Her Pals* (launched 1912) was among the earliest strips built around a recurring domestic cast, its daily rhythm of situation comedy and visual shorthand directly shaping the anthology reprint format that became the American comic book.