Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Death of Newspapers #8: Cliff Sterrett and Michael Moore
Cliff Sterrett began Polly and Her Pals in 1912 as Positive Polly. It ran in Hearst papers as both a daily strip and a Sunday strip. The onset of arthritis led him to bring in Paul Fung and Vernon Greene as assistants on the dailies. Sterrett needed a full page to display his innovative visuals, verging on cubism, but after WWII, his masterpiece no longer had a full page, and it came to an end on Sunday, June 15, 1958, as newspapers continued to downsize the comics. As Michael Moore puts it, newspapers "slit their own throats."
Cliff Sterrett began Polly and Her Pals in 1912 as Positive Polly. It ran in Hearst papers as both a daily strip and a Sunday strip. The onset of arthritis led him to bring in Paul Fung and Vernon Greene as assistants on the dailies. Sterrett needed a full page to display his innovative visuals, verging on cubism, but after WWII, his masterpiece no longer had a full page, and it came to an end on Sunday, June 15, 1958, as newspapers continued to downsize the comics. As Michael Moore puts it, newspapers "slit their own throats."
September 26, 1926
February 11, 1934
Labels: death of newspapers, michael moore, polly and her pals, sterrett
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