Last week I paid homage to Dick Tracy, I feel it's only fair to pick another comic strip: Li'l Abner.

Significantly, he invented out of whole cloth an annual event wherein the women get to choose a mate. Sadie Hawkins Day became an actual event. Nested in a story line from November 15, 1937 Sadie Hawkins Day was imitated in real life in college campuses across country. By 1952 it was everywhere in America (Wikipedia mentions 40,000 known venues). It's also morphed into a common practice in schools known as either 'Sadie Hawkins Day' or the 'Sadie Hawkins Dance' where it's become a tradition falling on every November 13!

It's weird how one lone artist working on a comic strip can make something that morphs into a nationwide holiday. Kinda like Charles Schulz creating a recognized trope of Lucy pulling away Charlie Brown's football.

Last week to do this.

Get a free physical copy of Mayfield Eight: Into the Rat Hole delivered to your door! 3 new winners will be announced the first Tuesday of each month.

To qualify, reply to this email with:

1. Your name
2. Your street address
3. City
4. State (USA) or if overseas Territory, Province, etc.
5. Zip (USA) or postal code.

This is going until the end of the month, where I'll randomly choose and announce the three lucky winners! Good luck!
-Tim Larsen

Read 'The Rat Hole Bastards'

The Rat Hole Bastards is a 4-panel weekly comic strip set in a few years before Mayfield Eight. See the origins of Slade and his notorious Banshees biker gang! NOW LIVE on Patreon!:

(If you want to bypass the whole 'random' thing and get one for $4.99 (US CAN, plus shipping overseas) just...

Buy Mayfield Eight

Mayfield Eight is a 28-page comic book set in 1974 New Mexico where a 17-year-old fry cook gets in deep trouble with a local biker gang as he helps a sleazy friend conduct a back-room drug deal.

Available in my Shopify store!