Polly and Her Pals — 1925-03-12

Four panels track a small domestic con: Polly introduces her schoolmates Miss Carter and Miss Jordan to Pa, each girl flattering him as the world's most wonderful father. Pa melts. Polly then asks for fifty dollars to go shopping; her friends murmur certainty he'll comply. Final panel shows a dazed, disheveled Pa alone, conceding "It suttinly was good team work." Sterrett's draftsmanship is precise yet elastic — black-spot shadows, energetic figure work, expressive balloon lettering. *Polly and Her Pals*, launched 1912 in the *New York Evening Journal*, was among the earliest strips built around a recurring female lead. Its long daily and Sunday run contributed directly to the reprint collections of the 1930s that became the first true comic books.