Printed 112 years ago today in The Seattle Star. Image cleaned up, especially on the letters, see the original.
Found on the Library of Congress site. Feel free to pick something from there and post it yourself!
Old Nobody is the character of another comic from the same time period, by Clifton Meek. Meek apparently ghost-wrote a few Everett True comics as well. It seems like Nobody’s gimmick started off with more or less the exact same first panel as Everett comics, but Nobody’s thing would be that he would never actually challenge the problem because he’s “nobody”
Oh, cool, there’s an Everett reference in Old Nobody on the page you linked.
Two, in fact.
New reaction image detected
I like how they always have the exact same punchline, you don’t even need the second panel
I have many questions:
- WHO TF IS “OLD NOBODY”?!?
- why does he have E-Tru’s umbrella?
- why does he look like that?
- does this have something to do with Halloween?
- this isn’t some kind of racist thing, is it?
- why does E.T. call Ol Nobody a “loafer”, after he went through the trouble of bringing his umbrella?
- why can’t I find any info about “Old Nobody” on the web? Is this a figment of my imagination? It seems like he should have some Powers, like Punch Dodge or something like that.
- That’s a really nice Oi-Zuki Jodan, btw, though True-san’s leaning a bit too far forward. Or maybe Everett “The Outburst” True was originally a boxer?
- Does anybody have more info about “Old Nobody”, btw?
I have some answers (but not the big one).
A “loafer” is an old timey word for tramp, from German/Dutch “landlaufer” meaning “land walker”.
The rest is speculation, but I think this is a sort of anger at nobody returning his umbrella. Nobody does this, which is why this “person” is just a stick. Someone stole Ev’s umbrella and didn’t return it. But you can beat up nobody, so, here’s a literal strawman to beat up.