Polly and Her Pals — June 25, 1925

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* launched in 1912 and ran for four decades, making it one of the longest-lived American newspaper strips. This four-panel daily centers on the rotund, plaid-trousered Pa Perkins, who brags to his wife about winning fifty dollars at cards the previous night—only to overhear her immediately telephone a friend to arrange purchase of an expensive dress. Sterrett's draftsmanship here is deceptively loose: chunky, expressive figures, bold outlines, and economical backgrounds that push all weight onto facial reaction and dialogue timing. The strip pioneered the domestic-comedy format that shaped countless successors. Newspaper dailies like this one are the direct ancestors of the comic book, establishing the recurring cast, sequential panel logic, and speech-balloon conventions that define the medium.