*n its own time,The Outbursts of Everett Truewas an early 20th Century newspaper comic strip, featuring a grumpy old man who dealt with greedy landlords, animal abusers, and rude bosses with his fists and feet. But even if a 100 year old comic seems like a relic of the past,the relevance ofEverett True’s subject matter have made it a hit on social media.
Drawn in two- or three-panel stories by artist Condo, Everett True seemingly hates everyone he comes across. To be fair,almost everyone he comes across is deserving of his ire.His neighbors abandon their animals on vacation, his community is full of litterbugs, and the local landlord doesn’t heat his apartments. These people get their rightful comeuppance at Everett’s hands, andthis collection ofEVerett Truecomicsprove modern readers will wish he were real just as much as those reading the strips a century ago.
15Everett True Hates Selfish Husbands
Everett True: Wife Guy
Everett True isn’t a fashion icon. Not only do many comics show Everett looking down on fashionable people, but others make fun of his old-fashioned style, which never changes across decades in the comic. Here, however, he has a very strong opinion on an acquaintance’s new suit: the man needs to stop buying himself new clothes when his wife hasn’t had a wardrobe update in years. It’s not that Everett True hates fashion, but he hates inequality in the home budget. Today, we have the term“Wife Guy” to represent audacious men who actually like their wives.Everett True would perhaps appreciate the phrase.
Peanuts' Funniest Pig-Pen Joke Just Turned 70 (& It Shows How Smart Charles Schulz Really Was)
Peanuts is perhaps the most timeless and hilarious comic strips in history, and this Pig-Pen joke is proof of Charles M. Schulz’s comedic genius.
Everett Hands Out His Own Justice
The last few years have seen many protests of police corruption or unjust policing in America and other parts of the world. This comic suggests that the issue of cops who abuse their power has been going on for over a century. Here,Everett True serveshis own vigilante justiceand faces a surprisingly small punishment:for giving a cop a black eye, he faces a $50 fine (about $1500 today). Leaving the courthouse, he says it was a small price to pay for knocking some sense into an officer who harasses the weak while on the job.
13Everett True Hates Xenophobes
Fisticuffs Transcend Language
Despite the fact that humans have migrated all over the world throughout history, we still struggle with those who believe that the current travelers are too different to ever integrate into society. Here, Everett shows rare patience with an Italian man who struggles with English. A bystander laughs at the man, but Everett points out an important truth, still good to remember today:someone who speaks a language with a thick accent knows more than one language.The bystander doesn’t know what it’s like to struggle with a non-native language, because he never bothered to learn one.
12Everett True Hates Animal Abusers
He Opens His Own Obedience School for Humans
While Everett True doesn’t care for other people much, he’salways supportive of animals.When he sees a man “training” his bulldog by choking it with its leash and hitting it with his walking stick, he decides the owner needs some of Everett’s own specialized training. While the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) had already existed for over 50 years, so did dogfighting rings, andsome didn’t treat their dogs like pets, but as workers or machines. Luckily, Everett True was around to retrain humans as needed.
11Everett True Hates Litterbugs
Throw the Whole Man Away
Anti-littering campaigns are everywhere, reminding the public to keep beaches clean, adopt highways, and put trash in trash cans.This relevant comic shows why we still need near-constant messaging: because there are those who still don’t get the point. As a man reads a handbill (an old term for a pamphlet or flyer), he walks past a garbage can and still chooses to throw his trash on the street. Readers can see what he doesn’t - in the second panel, Everett True is approaching, and the man and his garbage attitude will get their comeuppance.
10 Most Philosophical Moments in Calvin and Hobbes Comics
Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes is a comic masterpiece, but it also contained regular deep musings on the philosophical ideals of absurdism.
10Everett True Hates Anti-Maskers
The Same Arguments, 100 Years Apart
One of the ways in whichThe Outbursts of Everett Trueis surprisingly relevant is with itscomics about public health and masking.In the late 1910s/early 1920s, a deadly flu spread around the world, and one of the recommended defenses to stop the disease was for people to mask in public. More than one comic shows Everett True facing off against someone who not only doesn’t mask, but dismisses him for doing so. His rebuttal here is as brutal as the flu: if you’re not going to mask to protect yourself and others, at least cover up your ugly mug.
9Everett True Hates Stingy Landlords
He Gives Him a Taste of His Own Medicine
Everett True’s own home has shifted from an apartment to a house and back again, based on whatever was needed for the joke. In this comic, he bursts into a landlord’s home with a block of ice, telling the man to remove his pants and sit on it, simulating the cold conditions his tenants live in. Everett says he can get upif he promises to heat his buildings appropriately,which the landlord quickly agrees to. It’s unclear if he’s Everett’s own landlord, or if he’s acting on behalf of others, but either way, his methods are effective.
8Everett True Hates Careless Pet Owners
But He Will Take Care of Their Pets
Many pet owners today think of their companions as"fur babies,“and take as much care of them as a child. This wasn’t always the case, and careless pet owners ranged from the outright abusive man from the comic above, to these neighbors of Everett True, wholeft their housecat outside while they went on a two-week vacation.The owner arrogantly tells Everett that she looks fine and healthy, but is in for a surprise: she’s been well-fed this entire time by Everett and his wife, with food they had charged to the neighbor’s grocery account (about $150-200 in today’s money).
7Everett True Hates Disrespectful Bosses
True’s Outbursts Are Always on the Clock
As long as people have been working for others, there has always been a rift between workers and bosses. Labor Day became an official American holiday in the late 19th century, honoring laborers and workers, and bringing awareness to the worth of common people. It also highlights the labor movement and its achievements, like abolishing child labor, and forcing bosses to give days off. The rich man here thinks the parade is not just silly, but laughable, but comrade Everett True quickly reminds him that the parading workers generate all of his wealth, and to show some respect.
Everett True wasn’t an early Socialist pioneer; another comic shows him clashing with an IWW leader. The Industrial Workers of the World union allied workers across trades and national borders, but was thought of as too radical, and had less success than the more conservative American Federation of Labor, which continues today as the AFL-CIO.
6Everett True’s Wife Hates His Smoking Habits
She’s a Perfect Match for Her Husband
While Everett True seems to think himself a warrior for justice, this comic set at home shows he has his own slovenly ways. Not only does he stub out his cigars all over the house, he doesn’t even throw them away, expecting his wife to clean up ash, butts, and burn marks. She’s also repeatedly asked him to stop doing this, and he’s ignored her. When he tells her to toss his trash,she responds in a manner similar to her husband, and throws his garbage into his face.Even though Everett isn’t in the right here, this comic still shows how much even “good men” leave up to their wives.
