Polly and Her Pals — 1922-08-22

In this four-panel daily, Ash — Polly's dandyish suitor — strides into what turns out to be a pet shop and imperiously demands puppy biscuits, only to be knocked flat by the eager dog who devours them on the spot. Sterrett's linework is already confident: elongated figures, sharp silhouettes, and expressive postures carry the gag without fuss. *Polly and Her Pals*, launched in 1912, was among the first newspaper strips to center a young woman and her extended household. Sterrett would later push the Sunday pages toward near-abstract Art Deco patterning, influencing a generation of cartoonists. These syndicated dailies and Sunday pages — collected, cut, and stapled — were the direct material ancestors of the comic book form itself.