Polly and Her Pals — Daily Strip

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* launched in 1912 as one of the earliest newspaper strips built around a recurring cast with consistent visual personalities. This daily strip runs four panels: the round, rumpled Paw grumbles that he needs a vacation; niece or neighbor Unk presses him on why; Paw revises his complaint to needing "a change"; the punchline lands when Polly flatly suggests he try going to work. Sterrett's draftsmanship is economical — chunky figures, plaid trousers doing comic duty, speech balloons anchored cleanly above each speaker. Daily newspaper strips like this one trained readers in sequential panel logic and the compressed setup-and-punchline rhythm that would migrate directly into comic book page structure through the 1930s and 1940s.