Polly and Her Pals — PO350101

Cliff Sterrett's *Polly and Her Pals* ran in Hearst papers from 1912 into the 1950s, making it one of American newspaper comics' longest-running strips. This New Year's strip unfolds across four panels: a snowman outside gives way to a chaotic indoor celebration, figures tumbling and lurching through garland-draped rooms while a grandfather clock marks midnight. Sterrett's line work is energetic and dense — bodies collide, hats fly, a Christmas tree lists in the corner. The strip exemplifies the Sunday-page tradition from which comic books directly descend: recurring characters, sequential panel grammar, and slapstick timing refined across decades. Sterrett later pushed toward near-Cubist backgrounds, making *Polly* one of the most visually adventurous strips of the pre-war era.