Polly and Her Pals — PO350107

Cliff Sterrett launched *Polly and Her Pals* in 1912, making it one of the longest-running strips of the early syndicate era. This four-panel daily follows the recurring gag of Pa Paw attempting to dodge a family swimming outing; cornered by a dare, he visits a sporting-goods shop asking for a seal-skin suit in size thirty-six, triggering a frantic search for raccoon-skin swimwear that ends, inevitably, in failure. Sterrett's draftsmanship is confident — thick brushwork, expressive caricature, and clean panel gutters that push the eye left to right without hesitation. Strips like this one were the direct raw material from which comic books were assembled beginning in 1933–34, when publishers reprinted syndicated dailies in pamphlet form and accidentally invented a medium.