People sometimes ask why these old comics are still relatable, and part of the answer is: selection bias! Namely, those of us who post them tend to select those that we find relatable. To highlight that, here are all the Everett True comics on the Library of Congress site that came out on October 26 (of various years). These are not cleaned up or even cropped from their newspaper:

SO TO SUMMARIZE, out of 20 candidates, only 4 of these are candidates for selection. I’d probably pick the one related to the dangers of speeding, because it might appeal to the [email protected] crowd (of which I am one!) Or maybe the one about tipping, since the image is a lot cleaner. But many of the other ones are dated, some don’t make sense, and some even present Everett in a very unflattering light.

Another thing to think about is that this may not be a complete selection of the comics that could be available. Some might only be in newspapers that are not in the Library of Congress’ archives. Some might not have been selected for publication by the editors of the papers that are (because I think a batch of comics would be sent to the newspapers periodically, and the editors would then fit one in whenever they had room). And some, like that one example from 1917, might be in such poor condition that it couldn’t be cleaned up enough. I think this is a type of survivorship bias, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I hope that was interesting! And if it wasn’t, then… OUTBURST.jpg.

EDIT: I should have ended this by saying: as you can see, there are plenty of comics that aren’t chosen, but maybe you see some that you think are worthwhile! If so please feel free to post it! Just take a screencap and crop, look for more comics here: