'Twas Ever Thus by Clare Briggs

Briggs's Sunday strip traces fashion through history, from primitive times through the Egyptian period, Queen Mary's era, and into the present day. Each panel pairs a historical moment with commentary on dress codes and social convention. The recurring format—a guide figure explaining period styles alongside fashionable characters—became standard for instructional comics. Briggs's clean line work, sequential panel layout, and use of speech balloons to advance narrative established visual conventions that newspapers and early comic books would adopt. The strip demonstrates how Sunday comics combined humor with social observation, making them vehicles for cultural commentary alongside entertainment.