Outbursts of Everett True

A two-panel gag strip featuring the irascible Everett True. In the first panel, True asks a rotund gentleman for a light; in the second, the man bends over to oblige, and True uses his massive belly as a target for the flame. The strip exemplifies early newspaper comic humor: recurring character, exaggerated physiques, physical comedy, and rapid escalation. Published in the Sunday comics sections that pioneered sequential art storytelling, such strips established visual conventions—speech balloons, panel progression, expressive linework—that became foundational to comic books. Everett True strips traded in slapstick and social transgression, capturing the irreverent spirit of turn-of-the-century newspaper humor.