Polly and Her Pals

Four-panel daily strip in which Pa frets that the household cook keeps stealing gloves — three pairs gone from both him and Polly. Consulting a male companion, Pa announces he has worked out a scientific solution: give the cook a diamond ring for each hand, eliminating any need for gloves. Sterrett's linework is assured and economical, his figures rubbery yet expressive, with mushroom-shaped speech balloons crowding energetic compositions. Launched in 1912 by Cliff Sterrett for the New York Evening Telegram, *Polly and Her Pals* was among the first newspaper strips to develop a consistent cast of recurring domestic characters across daily and Sunday pages — the very format whose accumulated pages, later collected and stapled, gave rise to the comic book as a physical object.