Polly and Her Pals — 1922-09-07

Four panels track a domestic negotiation: a woman confronts a man named Ash, cataloguing everything he surrendered for her sake — smoking, cussing, dancing, home-brew, billiards, bridge. When she asks why he won't marry her, Ash bolts, announcing he now has a hunch he can 'do better.' The final panel delivers the visual punchline: he lands in a heap of spiraling chaos lines. Sterrett's draftsmanship is already confident here — angular figures, expressive silhouettes, speech balloons that carry comic rhythm. *Polly and Her Pals*, launched in 1912, was among the earliest strips to build its comedy around a recurring ensemble rather than a single protagonist, influencing the domestic-comedy format that would migrate directly into the comic-book anthology format of the 1930s and 1940s.