Back In The Days When The Funnies Were Really Funny

Here is a special edition of The Cleveland Press celebrating it's 75th anniversary in 1953. My mom discovered it in their basement a few years ago; probably originally saved by her parents. Much of the content focused on what had changed in the Cleveland area since 1878...
Towards the end, they also ran a page of comics from days gone by. The title running across the top of the page was "Back in the Days When the Funnies Were Really Funny"...
What's immediately striking is the notion that this paper is 70 years old, and people were complaining then about how the comics weren't really funny anymore. It's an arguement that continues to this day, with the change being that the comics people think were funny then are the same ones these people thought were thoroughly unfunny compared to what had come before. It's a common notion -- the whole idea of nostalgia and remembering the best of times while forgetting/ignoring the worst. But it's plainly evident here.

But why not judge for yourself? I've tried to zoom in and clean up a few of the examples the Press used as funny comics of yesteryear.

The first Everett True comic from 1905...

Mr. Skygack, from Mars circa 1908...

Out of Town from 1922...

Alley Oop (date unknown, but certainly after 1932)...

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