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The Outbursts of Everett True
Outbursts of Everett True
HERE IS A MAN WHO WOULD NOT TAKE IT.
We have forgotten about Everett True, a man who attended with prejudice to those most deserving—the daily pests. Sure, superheroes may have stopped crimes and Popeye may have known his share of dust-ups. But what about the million annoying twerps who don’t break the law, but instead stomp on the social contract? When do they get theirs?
Everett had no superpowers nor can of spinach, just a keen sense of human nature and the will to reward it but good. Everett True wished to live a simple life. He wished to go about his day without being unnecessarily bothered. His success then was not far from your own today. From loud-mouths in the theater to the overly pushy salesman, from the incessantly bothersome co-worker to the sidewalk hoggers, there’s always some do-gooder who needs done in. You and I might take it on the chin, but Everett gives it on the noggin with interest.
Outbursts of Everett True rarely strays from a natural formula: the pest impinges on Everett, Everett clobbers the pest. Far from repetitive, the rhythm reveals the timeless truth that the line between justice and revenge is a phantom’s dream. Away with pity for the braggart, the inconsiderate, the assuming, the imposing, the blowhards, those cruel to animals and all the other pushy clods who would turn a perfectly pleasant day into a trial.
Here are the best and brassiest Outbursts of Everett True. Many are reprinted for the first time since they were created by A. D. Condo and J. W. Raper, beginning in 1905. Outbursts of Everett True also packs the one-two punch of rare bibliographical information about the creators. Let Trevor Blake reintroduce our hero to a world ever more crowded with louts. Here is a man who stood up.
We have forgotten about Everett True, a man who attended with prejudice to those most deserving—the daily pests. Sure, superheroes may have stopped crimes and Popeye may have known his share of dust-ups. But what about the million annoying twerps who don’t break the law, but instead stomp on the social contract? When do they get theirs?
Everett had no superpowers nor can of spinach, just a keen sense of human nature and the will to reward it but good. Everett True wished to live a simple life. He wished to go about his day without being unnecessarily bothered. His success then was not far from your own today. From loud-mouths in the theater to the overly pushy salesman, from the incessantly bothersome co-worker to the sidewalk hoggers, there’s always some do-gooder who needs done in. You and I might take it on the chin, but Everett gives it on the noggin with interest.
Outbursts of Everett True rarely strays from a natural formula: the pest impinges on Everett, Everett clobbers the pest. Far from repetitive, the rhythm reveals the timeless truth that the line between justice and revenge is a phantom’s dream. Away with pity for the braggart, the inconsiderate, the assuming, the imposing, the blowhards, those cruel to animals and all the other pushy clods who would turn a perfectly pleasant day into a trial.
Here are the best and brassiest Outbursts of Everett True. Many are reprinted for the first time since they were created by A. D. Condo and J. W. Raper, beginning in 1905. Outbursts of Everett True also packs the one-two punch of rare bibliographical information about the creators. Let Trevor Blake reintroduce our hero to a world ever more crowded with louts. Here is a man who stood up.
280 pages, Paperback
Published June 29, 2015
3 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
A.D. Condo
4 books1 followerArmundo Dreisbach "A.D." Condo was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the comic strip The Outbursts of Everett True.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 15, 2020
"We're all of us mollycoddles—more or less. We have a valuable hour which somebody wearies away in recitals of his troubles with his furnace. We look pleasant when a neighbor hurls at us the bright sayings'. of his little Willie. We graciously permit a man to give the hot air treatment to some question of politics—and dinner growing colder every minute. We tolerate the nuisance and the boor, even smiling, at times, instead of resenting intrusions and impertinences. And all for the sake of peace. Everett True lacks our weakness in treatment of the human pest. He is a living protest against the incarnate irritants that are with us always. He is not a reformer, but rather an executioner, inflicting punishment where he comes in contact with fit subjects of penal treatment. Mr. True's victims call him a grouch: In reality he is a humanitarian."
September 21, 2024
A.D. Condo and J.W. Raper's 2014 Outbursts of Everett True, edited by Kevin I. Slaughter, collects 266 of the artists' 1- and 2-panel Nineteen-Teens newspaper comics featuring the irascible character who, rotund and bald and scowling, and very worthy of his name, with umbrella, gloved fist, foot, voice, or combination of the foregoing puts perceived wrongdoers in their place.
Aside from the fact that giving some offender of decorum a punch in the snoot, whack atop the head, or kick in the rear--that is to say, assault and battery--nowadays is a tad more frowned upon than it apparently was over a century ago, and also setting aside some other social sensibilities that may not necessarily match with ours any longer, Everett True otherwise is an entertaining and enjoyable curmudgeon. His nemeses are boors of all variety: loudmouths and noisemakers, know-it-alls and filibusterers, pesterers and salesmen, jokers and storytellers, late-arrivers and overstayers, moochers and deadbeats, litterers and tobacco-spitters, preachers and politicians, warmongers and draft-dodgers, slang-slingers and wise-guys, public swearers and ruiners of childhood, hypocrites of all variety, and mistreaters of animals. These people all receive a least a tongue-lashing and at most a fist-bashing or a literal ass-kicking.
First, though, it must be noted that unfortunately, despite the fact that True is doggedly committed to sticking his nose wherever he likes and criticizing other fellows' mustaches and beards (2014 Underworld Amusements softcover, pages 51, 127, 234, and 248), rakishly worn hats (page 98), or "manner [they] affect" (page 88), including that of a stylish "old goat...trying to disguise his fifty years" (page 30) or a man smelling of "perfumery" (page 134), he actually can be mighty thin-skinned himself. That is, if someone makes fun of his rare facial stubble (page 41), his baldness (page 151), his weight (page 164), his supposedly mirror-breaking face (page 253), or his chasing of his blown hat down the street (page 230), then his trademark umbrella or other means of violence will come into action. The same goes when anyone attempts to prank him by claiming to find "a long blonde hair on [his] shoulder" (page 175) or by blowing out the match lighting his cigar (page 244), and even someone asking why he wears this hat rather than that one will receive a telling-off and a punching-out (page 65).
In addition to this, True's mockingly ironic policing of the male dress code of the day, hilarious as it would have been to most contemporaries, and perhaps even today merely shrug-worthy to anyone understanding the history, likely will sit particularly poorly with some modern readers. In addition to dismissing a "dainty" and "charming" necktie being pushed by a salesman as being "daffy twaddle" (page 182), the comic strip's eponymous character derides men who apparently dress somewhat effeminately according to the era's standards by addressing them as females (pages 37, 52, 60, 121, 195, 224, 263); some of the ridicule is triggered by the wearing of wristwatches (pages 37, 121, and 224), which until the return of soldiers from the trenches of the First World War were considered only ladies' fashion.
Otherwise, though, True's crusty heart generally is in the right place. He is sharp-eyed and unremitting on anyone mistreating animals, for example, and sharper in his payback. Whether a then-common workhorse is overused (pages 18, 118, 160, and 192), dogs are bothered (page 67, 74, and 216), zoo animals are teased (page 147), or songbird is the target of a thrown rock (page 101), True's vengeance is fierce. One tight rein-puller receives not just a solid kick but also an inventive makeshift bondage bridle stretching his pulled-open upper jaw back toward the wrists lashed behind him (page 18), and when a housecat is "left behind to starve" during a family's vacation, True will march "'way up here" to the woods to drag the thoughtless owner roughly back (page 241). The book's only exception to his usual care for animals is the scene in the taxidermy shop in which True tells the proprietor, "This very noisy parrot, with my assistance, passed into the great silence about twenty minutes ago," and that he wishes it stuffed, with the bill going to his "next-door neighbor, Mr. Noosance" (page 239), so...well, just as with his own self that will bear no mockery, our hero is not without contradiction.
Speaking of his heart being at least generally in the right, however, just as True makes it a point to defend helpless animals, the hulking man also makes it a point to defend the supposedly delicate human female as well. He rips up one man's "indecent picture" (page 31), for example, drags a long-bearded old man away from a crank-operated peep-show film titled "The Gaiety Girls" (page 31), and admonishes by both word and deed, shall we say, any who would "refer to a lady as a skirt" (page 93) or "to his [own] wife as 'The Old Woman'" (page 19). And any sidewalk loafers making free with "that coarse talk when [he's] passing along the street with [his] wife" will end up full-length upon said sidewalk (page 122), while even a fellow who proudly shows off his "new outfit every two months" when True knows the man's wife "hasn't had a new suit in two years" will be kicked right out of the comic's frame (page 137).
Yet in addition to such paternalism that may rub many the wrong way nowadays--as undoubtedly will his job posting for a stenographer requiring that the candidate "Must Be Man Or Very Old Maid" because, as he grumbles, he is "tired of getting young chickens working...for a few weeks and then running off and getting married" (page 247)--the humor also cuts self-deprecatingly in the other direction as well regarding marriage. For example, when an acquaintance on the street asserts emphatically, his text using both boldface and double exclamation points, "I'm the boss at our house!! What I say goes!! Don't see me taking orders from any woman!!" as soon as True says, "Here comes your wife," away scurries the man to "do that errand she sent [him] on" so she won't "be warm under the collar," leaving True to chuckle (page 24). Of course, when old Everett himself in one panel sternly puts his foot down to "Mrs. True," as he addresses his wife, whether about not replacing his comfortable old hat or about staying home rather than going out to a party, in the second panel it is our turn to chuckle when the poor glum fellow can only obey meekly (pages 54 and 70). And if he comes home and hears a women's suffrage meeting in the parlor, the man makes no attempt at reclaiming his supposed castle, and instead he high-tails it right back out (page 146).
Mrs. True also gets the upper hand when in a theater, it appears, he who was "[a]lways telling [her] that low neck dresses are nothing but pneumonia breeding contrivances" is seen glancing approvingly at the neckline of a fashionable young lady whose completely non-cleavage-showing dress reveals a whopping two inches or so below her collar bones, and she hustles him right out the door, to the amusement of other patrons, with a double-punctuated exclamation of "You old reprobate!!" (page 132). Later, on a snowy day when the supposedly fearsome True warns aloud that the "considerable snow-balling going on" had better not touch him, he is beset by playful young snowballing women and instead turns out as a Jack-the-lad softy, pretending to profess, "Now, you stop!!!" as his wide face splits into a grin (page 261).
The Trues actually are a pretty good team, though. Now, yes, we do of course have the requisite gag in which a fellow shaking hands says, "What, don't remember me? I'm the man who first introduced you to your wife" and then is seen running for his life (page 189). But the missus offers her husband a heartfelt shake after asking who had been "at the front door just now" and being told, "It was the Smith's [sic], and they went away when I asked them why they always dropped in on us about meal-time!" (page 91). And although in this time period it of course is seen as natural that the woman of the house do all the cooking, when Everett sits down to his breakfast alone and wonders where the guest are, at his wife's reply that she will make another "breakfast for them when they get up," he stomps upstairs and yells at the "couple of spongers" that "[t]his thing of my wife cooking extra breakfast every morning has got to stop!" (page 190).
Finally, my own favorite cartoon among the whole 266 is perhaps the subtlest. All but a handful of the selection here have at least some text, but this one has none. The first panel shows four jackasses unconcernedly hogging the entire sidewalk, striding abreast and synchronized as three turn their heads, smiling, to listen the gesticulating one make a point--at the very left edge of the drawing we see just the first few inches of a protruding belly, along with the bottom of one oncoming leg and three quarters of its foot. In the second panel the four have knocked wide upon the pavement like pins in a bowling alley, two with only feet still showing in the frame, one sag-jawed man sitting up in the gutter and massaging his now-hatless head with both hands, the other hatless man lying curled sideways against the building's wall, half rising on one bent arm, disheveled as he turns toward us over his other shoulder to reveal just the upper half of his face, wide-eyed and dazed--on the right side we see just True's broad back and placidly plodding legs, without even a glimpse at his face (page 72). Exquisite!
A.D. Condo and J.W. Raper's Outbursts of Everett True, edited by Kevin I. Slaughter, has some annoying layout errors I cannot un-see--a cover looking sloppy and hard to read because of the way the black-and-white cartoon panel excerpts press up against one another, and the unappealing font of the introduction, along with some obvious comma splices--but still, disregarding some outdated now-offensive pieces of humor that others perhaps now and then might complain about, I consider it quite an entertaining 4- star read.
Aside from the fact that giving some offender of decorum a punch in the snoot, whack atop the head, or kick in the rear--that is to say, assault and battery--nowadays is a tad more frowned upon than it apparently was over a century ago, and also setting aside some other social sensibilities that may not necessarily match with ours any longer, Everett True otherwise is an entertaining and enjoyable curmudgeon. His nemeses are boors of all variety: loudmouths and noisemakers, know-it-alls and filibusterers, pesterers and salesmen, jokers and storytellers, late-arrivers and overstayers, moochers and deadbeats, litterers and tobacco-spitters, preachers and politicians, warmongers and draft-dodgers, slang-slingers and wise-guys, public swearers and ruiners of childhood, hypocrites of all variety, and mistreaters of animals. These people all receive a least a tongue-lashing and at most a fist-bashing or a literal ass-kicking.
First, though, it must be noted that unfortunately, despite the fact that True is doggedly committed to sticking his nose wherever he likes and criticizing other fellows' mustaches and beards (2014 Underworld Amusements softcover, pages 51, 127, 234, and 248), rakishly worn hats (page 98), or "manner [they] affect" (page 88), including that of a stylish "old goat...trying to disguise his fifty years" (page 30) or a man smelling of "perfumery" (page 134), he actually can be mighty thin-skinned himself. That is, if someone makes fun of his rare facial stubble (page 41), his baldness (page 151), his weight (page 164), his supposedly mirror-breaking face (page 253), or his chasing of his blown hat down the street (page 230), then his trademark umbrella or other means of violence will come into action. The same goes when anyone attempts to prank him by claiming to find "a long blonde hair on [his] shoulder" (page 175) or by blowing out the match lighting his cigar (page 244), and even someone asking why he wears this hat rather than that one will receive a telling-off and a punching-out (page 65).
In addition to this, True's mockingly ironic policing of the male dress code of the day, hilarious as it would have been to most contemporaries, and perhaps even today merely shrug-worthy to anyone understanding the history, likely will sit particularly poorly with some modern readers. In addition to dismissing a "dainty" and "charming" necktie being pushed by a salesman as being "daffy twaddle" (page 182), the comic strip's eponymous character derides men who apparently dress somewhat effeminately according to the era's standards by addressing them as females (pages 37, 52, 60, 121, 195, 224, 263); some of the ridicule is triggered by the wearing of wristwatches (pages 37, 121, and 224), which until the return of soldiers from the trenches of the First World War were considered only ladies' fashion.
Otherwise, though, True's crusty heart generally is in the right place. He is sharp-eyed and unremitting on anyone mistreating animals, for example, and sharper in his payback. Whether a then-common workhorse is overused (pages 18, 118, 160, and 192), dogs are bothered (page 67, 74, and 216), zoo animals are teased (page 147), or songbird is the target of a thrown rock (page 101), True's vengeance is fierce. One tight rein-puller receives not just a solid kick but also an inventive makeshift bondage bridle stretching his pulled-open upper jaw back toward the wrists lashed behind him (page 18), and when a housecat is "left behind to starve" during a family's vacation, True will march "'way up here" to the woods to drag the thoughtless owner roughly back (page 241). The book's only exception to his usual care for animals is the scene in the taxidermy shop in which True tells the proprietor, "This very noisy parrot, with my assistance, passed into the great silence about twenty minutes ago," and that he wishes it stuffed, with the bill going to his "next-door neighbor, Mr. Noosance" (page 239), so...well, just as with his own self that will bear no mockery, our hero is not without contradiction.
Speaking of his heart being at least generally in the right, however, just as True makes it a point to defend helpless animals, the hulking man also makes it a point to defend the supposedly delicate human female as well. He rips up one man's "indecent picture" (page 31), for example, drags a long-bearded old man away from a crank-operated peep-show film titled "The Gaiety Girls" (page 31), and admonishes by both word and deed, shall we say, any who would "refer to a lady as a skirt" (page 93) or "to his [own] wife as 'The Old Woman'" (page 19). And any sidewalk loafers making free with "that coarse talk when [he's] passing along the street with [his] wife" will end up full-length upon said sidewalk (page 122), while even a fellow who proudly shows off his "new outfit every two months" when True knows the man's wife "hasn't had a new suit in two years" will be kicked right out of the comic's frame (page 137).
Yet in addition to such paternalism that may rub many the wrong way nowadays--as undoubtedly will his job posting for a stenographer requiring that the candidate "Must Be Man Or Very Old Maid" because, as he grumbles, he is "tired of getting young chickens working...for a few weeks and then running off and getting married" (page 247)--the humor also cuts self-deprecatingly in the other direction as well regarding marriage. For example, when an acquaintance on the street asserts emphatically, his text using both boldface and double exclamation points, "I'm the boss at our house!! What I say goes!! Don't see me taking orders from any woman!!" as soon as True says, "Here comes your wife," away scurries the man to "do that errand she sent [him] on" so she won't "be warm under the collar," leaving True to chuckle (page 24). Of course, when old Everett himself in one panel sternly puts his foot down to "Mrs. True," as he addresses his wife, whether about not replacing his comfortable old hat or about staying home rather than going out to a party, in the second panel it is our turn to chuckle when the poor glum fellow can only obey meekly (pages 54 and 70). And if he comes home and hears a women's suffrage meeting in the parlor, the man makes no attempt at reclaiming his supposed castle, and instead he high-tails it right back out (page 146).
Mrs. True also gets the upper hand when in a theater, it appears, he who was "[a]lways telling [her] that low neck dresses are nothing but pneumonia breeding contrivances" is seen glancing approvingly at the neckline of a fashionable young lady whose completely non-cleavage-showing dress reveals a whopping two inches or so below her collar bones, and she hustles him right out the door, to the amusement of other patrons, with a double-punctuated exclamation of "You old reprobate!!" (page 132). Later, on a snowy day when the supposedly fearsome True warns aloud that the "considerable snow-balling going on" had better not touch him, he is beset by playful young snowballing women and instead turns out as a Jack-the-lad softy, pretending to profess, "Now, you stop!!!" as his wide face splits into a grin (page 261).
The Trues actually are a pretty good team, though. Now, yes, we do of course have the requisite gag in which a fellow shaking hands says, "What, don't remember me? I'm the man who first introduced you to your wife" and then is seen running for his life (page 189). But the missus offers her husband a heartfelt shake after asking who had been "at the front door just now" and being told, "It was the Smith's [sic], and they went away when I asked them why they always dropped in on us about meal-time!" (page 91). And although in this time period it of course is seen as natural that the woman of the house do all the cooking, when Everett sits down to his breakfast alone and wonders where the guest are, at his wife's reply that she will make another "breakfast for them when they get up," he stomps upstairs and yells at the "couple of spongers" that "[t]his thing of my wife cooking extra breakfast every morning has got to stop!" (page 190).
Finally, my own favorite cartoon among the whole 266 is perhaps the subtlest. All but a handful of the selection here have at least some text, but this one has none. The first panel shows four jackasses unconcernedly hogging the entire sidewalk, striding abreast and synchronized as three turn their heads, smiling, to listen the gesticulating one make a point--at the very left edge of the drawing we see just the first few inches of a protruding belly, along with the bottom of one oncoming leg and three quarters of its foot. In the second panel the four have knocked wide upon the pavement like pins in a bowling alley, two with only feet still showing in the frame, one sag-jawed man sitting up in the gutter and massaging his now-hatless head with both hands, the other hatless man lying curled sideways against the building's wall, half rising on one bent arm, disheveled as he turns toward us over his other shoulder to reveal just the upper half of his face, wide-eyed and dazed--on the right side we see just True's broad back and placidly plodding legs, without even a glimpse at his face (page 72). Exquisite!
A.D. Condo and J.W. Raper's Outbursts of Everett True, edited by Kevin I. Slaughter, has some annoying layout errors I cannot un-see--a cover looking sloppy and hard to read because of the way the black-and-white cartoon panel excerpts press up against one another, and the unappealing font of the introduction, along with some obvious comma splices--but still, disregarding some outdated now-offensive pieces of humor that others perhaps now and then might complain about, I consider it quite an entertaining 4- star read.
August 23, 2020
I hadn't heard of this early 20th-century newspaper strip until a handful of dailies (some of which are collected in this book) became a THING on Twitter for a short period of time. Neither did most people, judging by the scarce number of ratings here. Funny how some works, no matter how popular they were during their time, can turn obscure and forgotten decades onwards.
So what it's about is one Mr True roaming through the streets, encountering people's misbehaviours and questionable attitudes - which causes (nearly) every strip to end in a literal punchline. At first you wonder how on earth this strip was able to sustain itself for little over two decades, because how many distinctive types of misbehaviours even are there, and wouldn't it run out of topical steam at least after a year or two? As it turns out, and as you realize as you reading this collection, there are plentiful and humanity is nothing short of an endless well of Everett True material. Sure, this book merely showcases highlights, but the nearly 300 strips collected here show little repetition.
That doesn't mean however that a few "Outbursts" come across a little petty at times and that some casual sexism (and outdated views on gender) creeps in here and there, so every 50 strips or so you might roll your eyes a bit. On the other hand however a lot of the strips haven't aged at all and could be published just as they are today. Some things just don't change.
So what it's about is one Mr True roaming through the streets, encountering people's misbehaviours and questionable attitudes - which causes (nearly) every strip to end in a literal punchline. At first you wonder how on earth this strip was able to sustain itself for little over two decades, because how many distinctive types of misbehaviours even are there, and wouldn't it run out of topical steam at least after a year or two? As it turns out, and as you realize as you reading this collection, there are plentiful and humanity is nothing short of an endless well of Everett True material. Sure, this book merely showcases highlights, but the nearly 300 strips collected here show little repetition.
That doesn't mean however that a few "Outbursts" come across a little petty at times and that some casual sexism (and outdated views on gender) creeps in here and there, so every 50 strips or so you might roll your eyes a bit. On the other hand however a lot of the strips haven't aged at all and could be published just as they are today. Some things just don't change.
August 27, 2020
A fairly hilarious collection of simple, one-or-two-panel comics with the razor-sharp idea of having a protagonist who takes the daily annoyances we all internally swallow, and instead of learning to ignore of forgive or understand them, Everett True reacts against them loudly and violently.
Many of these are timeless situations: talking to blowhards, observing littering in public, overuse of hackneyed cliches, disrespect for other people’s time. You know some small part of you wants to punch a person who stops right in the middle of a narrow hallway to have a conversation—well, Everett proceeds to punch them, indeed.
As you might expect from a 1910s comic, some of the social attitudes are not super woke. Everett is outraged at men wearing wrist watches or flashy clothes. But there’s a surprisingly persistent note of progressive attitudes, too: obeying pandemic protocol, being kind to animals, the importance of voting, manspreading on public transit, bad cops and gun control.
Many of these are timeless situations: talking to blowhards, observing littering in public, overuse of hackneyed cliches, disrespect for other people’s time. You know some small part of you wants to punch a person who stops right in the middle of a narrow hallway to have a conversation—well, Everett proceeds to punch them, indeed.
As you might expect from a 1910s comic, some of the social attitudes are not super woke. Everett is outraged at men wearing wrist watches or flashy clothes. But there’s a surprisingly persistent note of progressive attitudes, too: obeying pandemic protocol, being kind to animals, the importance of voting, manspreading on public transit, bad cops and gun control.
June 1, 2020
I’d be like this if I was an early 20th century fat man too. He sure hates wristwatches though.
January 5, 2025
You can see why True has had a bit of a second life of late, because he’s a very cathartic figure when his strong opinions chime with yours. The problem is that that viewpoint isn’t always particularly consistent, and there’s almost as many times where True comes across as reactionary as he does as progressive. That lack of consistency is the only real frustration here, because otherwise it’s amazing how many different ways Condo finds to illustrate True losing his shit. That inventiveness is one of the main reasons it lasted as long as it did (and you could argue his lack of consistency helped because you could justify his viewpoint as being simpatico with your own about 70% of the time, but which to me feels a bit like righteous indignation for indignation’s sake - but as an easily indignant man I would say that I guess!)
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April 20, 2021These cartoons from about 1904 into WWI seem remarkably current. He commonly defends children, animals, women and immigrants. His targets include man-spreaders on the trolley, politicians, warmongers, hypocrites, billboards, and noise-makers.
Some of the strips are sexist, but others stand up for women. Too many object to men dressing in an unmanly style.
Everett True often punches someone for an infraction of his code, which is cathartic to imagine but not something that goes well in practice. ;-)
Some of the strips are sexist, but others stand up for women. Too many object to men dressing in an unmanly style.
Everett True often punches someone for an infraction of his code, which is cathartic to imagine but not something that goes well in practice. ;-)
October 5, 2021
Thought I would enjoy this more than I did. The pieces I had seen depicted True as defending the innocent or those unable to defend themselves, and sometimes his outbursts were applicable to now in spite of being published over 100 years ago.
This collection doesn't include those pieces I saw. Most of them are about a guy who flies off the handle at any time without warning and comes across as a hair-trigger brute. Even worse, what makes him mad contradicts itself from page to page. And his hatred of wristwatches? Dude, calm the hell down.
This collection doesn't include those pieces I saw. Most of them are about a guy who flies off the handle at any time without warning and comes across as a hair-trigger brute. Even worse, what makes him mad contradicts itself from page to page. And his hatred of wristwatches? Dude, calm the hell down.
October 14, 2025
It can be a bit hard to pinpoint Everett True's philosophy which at times is conservative and other times strikingly progressive. Given its popularity at the time, this provides an interesting snapshot of behavioral etiquette. A blend of anti-hypocrisy, mind-your-own-business, and egalitarian expectations (at least among men), alongside idiosyncratic taste (no facial hair and no dandyism). That nearly every misstep is treated with violence, often at the implied, if not explicit, approval of the crowd also speaks volumes. Rarely made me actually laugh, but did make me think.
July 4, 2022
Outbursts of Everett True was insanely ahead of its time for a comic. Everett takes on people who mistreat animals, people who like to argue for the sake of arguing, kill joys, and my personal favorite- abusive cops. I was a little disappointed to see Everett wasn't ALWAYS ahead of his time (a lot of toxic masculinity) but overall, this is a great comic series that has super relevant content nearly 120 years later.
August 4, 2022
Great foreword on this compilation that helps put the comics in context! I'm more rating the compilation than I am the comics themselves here, the comics are fine.
My only gripe is that I wish the publication date and newspaper name was put under the strips. You can see society changing in these comics (True goes from being annoyed about carraiges to being annoyed about cars, from loving his wife to hating women existing), and I wish I could point out the exact year these changes happen.
My only gripe is that I wish the publication date and newspaper name was put under the strips. You can see society changing in these comics (True goes from being annoyed about carraiges to being annoyed about cars, from loving his wife to hating women existing), and I wish I could point out the exact year these changes happen.
January 14, 2021
Fun collection of Everett True newspaper comics of the early 1900s - I think up to around WW 1.
While his brand of social justice usually centers around whacking someone with an umbrella, for the time and age he was, relatively speaking, quite a progressive.
There aren't many collections out there so give it a try.
While his brand of social justice usually centers around whacking someone with an umbrella, for the time and age he was, relatively speaking, quite a progressive.
There aren't many collections out there so give it a try.
December 22, 2023
They seem like a good representation of mainstream Protestant white politics in the Progressive era (US). I could see these being used in history classes to promote great discussions. However they do not seem like great representations of current progressive politics in the way I saw them promoted as on Tumblr. (The homophobia and gender stuff especially stands out to me as yikes.)
July 18, 2020
Amusing. Some strips show their age with sexism/outdated ideas about gender, but others progressively take a stand for society's most vulnerable: the poor, animals, children, minorities, and immigrants.
November 5, 2021
While not all have aged well, there are plenty of Everett's outbursts that are just as relevant today as they were the day they were written. A fascinating look into the history of comics and commentary.
February 24, 2023
The PUNISHER MAX strip of the early 20th C, before a drop of blood glistened when Captain America punched Hitler, before Frank Castle put on a bandolier, Mr. True meted out vengeance upon the bloated, the capitalist exploiter, the closetalker, the queue inserter, the openmouthed eater.
Want to read
March 5, 2023***zondag 5 maart 2023***
I found out about these comics through a Tumblr post which seems very fitting somehow.
From a historical standpoint these are fascinating and I can't wait to find out more.
I found out about these comics through a Tumblr post which seems very fitting somehow.
From a historical standpoint these are fascinating and I can't wait to find out more.
October 16, 2024
Everett True and his outrageous outbursts still amuse over a century later.
February 23, 2025
A highly enjoyable set of newspaper cartoons from the early 1900’s. Everett True was the Emily Post of angry men, bringing manners to the masses one punch at a time.
September 4, 2015
Everett True is a stocky man who is grumpy fairly often, frustrated almost all of the time, and frequently sees violence - verbal or physical - as a solution to both. I might find what I just said rather appalling if so many of those on the receiving end didn't richly deserve it. I own a few comic strip collections, including "Dilbert," "Get Fuzzy," and "Garfield." All of them have made me laugh quite a lot, and I can say the same for "Everett True." However, more often, "Everett True" accomplishes something that no other comic strip collection does for me: catharsis.
Nearly all of Everett True's outbursts are as relevant today as they were when the strip was written. Chatter occurs frequently at movie theaters across the United States, there are still unnecessary pests on many sidewalks, and so many would-be tough guys who tear down their spouses to bolster their reputation scurry away in fright when they get word of their beloved's approach. Mr. True will have none of it. Chatterboxes, rude buffoons, and all types of unpleasant people get the brunt of his fury, and it usually leaves them staggering home. The best part is that, on special occasion, a certain loudmouth on the street with earn Mr. True's ire through general rudeness, and grant him earned respect once he's pounded the offending party into the pavement! There are so many moments just like this to be appreciated in Mr. True's life, but I'll leave it to the reader to decide which those are.
Everett True has his way, one way or another, and I suspect is not only the envy of many weak-willed people, but the toast of many strong-willed people. I may not always agree with him, but he's a Hell of a guy, and I'm one among many who could learn a thing or two from him. "Everett True" had me laughing and feeling triumphant at the same time, and that, truly, is one of the sweeter things in life.
Nearly all of Everett True's outbursts are as relevant today as they were when the strip was written. Chatter occurs frequently at movie theaters across the United States, there are still unnecessary pests on many sidewalks, and so many would-be tough guys who tear down their spouses to bolster their reputation scurry away in fright when they get word of their beloved's approach. Mr. True will have none of it. Chatterboxes, rude buffoons, and all types of unpleasant people get the brunt of his fury, and it usually leaves them staggering home. The best part is that, on special occasion, a certain loudmouth on the street with earn Mr. True's ire through general rudeness, and grant him earned respect once he's pounded the offending party into the pavement! There are so many moments just like this to be appreciated in Mr. True's life, but I'll leave it to the reader to decide which those are.
Everett True has his way, one way or another, and I suspect is not only the envy of many weak-willed people, but the toast of many strong-willed people. I may not always agree with him, but he's a Hell of a guy, and I'm one among many who could learn a thing or two from him. "Everett True" had me laughing and feeling triumphant at the same time, and that, truly, is one of the sweeter things in life.
August 15, 2015
Generally a fun compilation. Some strips don't quite strike the gavel, but when they do....
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