Polly and Her Pals

It debuted as Positive Polly on December 4, 1912, in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers, initially the New York Journal, and was later distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Highlighting Sterrett's panels were oddly stylized backgrounds (trees, houses, windows, staircases), occasionally drawn in a distorted, cubist style.

[6] Unlike Dot and Dash, Belles (originally called Sweethearts and Wives) had dialogue, and a constantly changing cast made up of diverse romantic human couples.

Each episode began with a scene of pre-married bliss, followed by an "intermission" panel framed with wedding bells and an ominous caption: "And then they were married..." The exact same scenario would then be re-enacted post-wedding by the now-jaded couple—with drastically different results.

[2] Polly and Her Pals was the first of several comic strips about flirting pretty girls, including Edgar Martin's Boots and Her Buddies, Chic Young's Blondie and Larry Whittington's Fritzi Ritz (which later spawned Nancy).

Although Polly and Her Pals was highly influential, it was never a licensing success, and it lacked the spin-off books and merchandise generated by other contemporary comic strips.

But I love Sterrett—he belongs someplace else ...Six full-color Polly Sunday pages were prominently featured in Bill Blackbeard's The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (Abrams, 1977), representing for many modern fans their first opportunity to see the strip.

[16] IDW Publishing's "The Library of American Comics" put out an oversized, 12" x 16" full-color collection in their "Champagne Edition" size in 2010.