Polly and Her Pals — 1922-09-18

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* (1912–1958) is one of the great long-running American newspaper strips. This four-panel daily follows Pa Perkins and a companion discussing Aunt Maggie's unconventional approach to weight loss: rather than exercise on the beach, she simply stares at the sea for hours. The punchline lands in the final panel — the vast ocean makes her feel small. Sterrett's loose, confident linework and expressive figure drawing mark a strip that would grow increasingly abstract through the 1920s and '30s. Newspaper dailies like this were the direct source material for the first comic books, which were initially just reprinted strip collections — making strips such as this foundational documents in the medium's development.