Polly and Her Pals — 1922-08-18

Four panels track the consequences of late-night banjo-playing: a neighbor hurls a slipper through the window, striking the musician; his companion identifies it as 'brand new'; the player notes it matches his size; and a second shoe follows from offstage. Sterrett's draftsmanship is already mature here — angular figures, bold black shadows cast by a crescent moon, and kinetic sound-effect lettering integrated directly into the action. Launched in 1912, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the first newspaper strips to push panel composition toward near-abstract design. These syndicated daily and Sunday strips — distributed nationally by Newspaper Feature Service — form the direct lineage of the comic book, establishing the visual grammar of sequential panels, speech balloons, and recurring ensemble casts that anthology publishers would package and reprint through the 1930s.