Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Comic Art 23 Apr 2006 07:58 am

Polly

Comments (3)

3 Responses to “Polly”

1. on 08 May 2006 at 7:17 pm 1.Mark Orr said …

   That one is also in the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, IIRC. Starrett is an unsung genius, to be sure.

2. on 13 Sep 2006 at 2:27 pm 2.Twiss Butler said …

   As a former child reader of Cliff Sterrett’s “Polly and Her Pals,” I agree with all of the superlatives used about his work by his fans in the visual professions. I wonder if anyone but me remembers a strip in which Paw,in search of lodging for the night, wanders from one inn to another (all with punning sign boards over their doors), while carrying Kitty in a neat little contrivance consisting of a suitcase handle attached to two straps around her perfectly horizontal middle.

   Question: Would it be correct to attribute the iconic stride of the lead figure in the “Keep on truckin’” illustration to the way Sterrett invariably drew his walking figures? Or was that a more broadly used style?

3. on 01 Jun 2007 at 12:52 am 3.Carter said …

   I’ve wondered about the Crumb-Sterrett connection before. P&HP certainly wasn’t anthologized in 67 or 68 or whenever, but Crumb was also an avid collector of early 20th century ephemera and very aware of old newspaper styles.

   That stride is somewhat typical of “big shoe” newspaper funnies of the 20s and 30s, which is a style you can see all over anthologized cartoons from the era, but the particular bend to the knee and extreme perspective seems to be closer to Sterrett than anyone else.

   I’m curious.

   Also, I’d love to see either Crumbs 60s material or Sterrett’s work animated into a 7 minute film short by someone very qualified and working with a big budget. No way it’ll happen though.

Leave a Reply