Polly and Her Pals — 1925-06-30

Four panels follow Ashur, whose broken engagement sends him into comic collapse. A woman urges someone to cheer him up "like a good scout"; two men debate whether his girl returned the ring — standard breakup protocol, they agree. The punchline: Ashur never gave her a ring to begin with, leaving him slumped in bewildered ruin. Sterrett's linework is crisp and angular, with rubbery figures and expressive postures that carry the gag efficiently across tight horizontal panels. *Polly and Her Pals*, launched in 1912 by the New York *Evening Telegram*, was among the earliest strips to develop a true ensemble cast and consistent visual style — the daily newspaper strip being the direct commercial and formal ancestor of the comic book format that would coalesce in the 1930s.