Polly and Her Pals — 1925-01-10

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* (Hearst, 1912–1958) is among the longest-running American newspaper strips. This daily, signed and dated by Sterrett, turns on a single gag: a gangly, bespectacled man named Harold arrives at Polly's door, drawing a mob of swooning women — baffling one older onlooker who calls him a 'funny lookin' beanpole.' The punchline reveals Harold is 'the best crossword puzzlist in the world,' a joke timed to the crossword craze then sweeping America. Sterrett's draftsmanship is confident — fluid brushwork, expressive crowd staging, clean panel-to-panel momentum. Strips like this one, syndicated daily to millions, supplied the page layouts, recurring characters, and speech-balloon conventions that printer Max Gaines would soon bind into the first true comic books.