Polly and Her Pals — 1925-01-31

Four panels follow Maw as she coaches Paw through a rehearsal for a parlor performance, urging him to project louder; Paw protests he has no cold to excuse his weak voice. Maw, undeterred, announces to unseen guests that Paw's dreadful cold prevents him from delivering his promised parlor trick — while Paw, off to the side, chews contentedly. Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912 for the Hearst syndicate, making it one of the longest-running family strips in American newspaper history. Its densely cross-hatched figures and expressive staging exemplify the daily newspaper strip's role as the direct ancestor of the comic book — syndicating a visual shorthand of panels, balloons, and recurring characters to millions of readers before the first comic book existed.