James Robert Williams was born in 1888. Looking for adventure he ran away from home when he was in his mid-teens. He worked at a ranch for a while, then signed up with the US Cavalry for three years, and played football with a young Lieutenant George Patton. Returning home to his parents in Ohio, JR Williams got married and took a steady job at a crane manufacturing company, where he started drawing cover designs for the company's catalog. In 1921, after years of submitting ideas for strips to various syndicates, his one-panel cartoon gag series Out Our Way appeared for the first time. The success for this series led to a Sunday feature, Out Our Way With the Willits. Artists George Scarbo and Ned Cochran assisted Williams on the strip, which is still running. Another strip he did was titled Bull of the Woods, about a machine shop boss. Williams bought his own ranch in 1930 and died in 1957. A good sampling of the best of his work is presented in Out Our Way and in the volumes listed below.
Out Our Way
For over a third of a century J.R. Williams was the most popular cartoonist in North America. While most of the other cartoons of the era had a primary character, his daily panel, Out Our Way, was based on the trials and tribulations of the working class in general. It has become a record of the evolving urban lifestyle of families between the two world wars. Unlike most modern cartoons, Williams' work was always rich in detail, creating much of his humor with facial expressions and background detail. The humor was both gentle and insightful as it mirrored the lives of his readers. Many later cartoonists, including Charles Schulz of Peanuts fame, credited Williams as an inspiration in their work. This sampler spans several decades of his work when Out Our Way was a syndicated feature in over 700 newspapers.
8 x 8, softcover, 396 black and white pages. .....$22.95
Bull of the Woods
Four collections of Williams' classic machine shop cartoons. Very funny in a small town, slice-of-life way. Bull of the Woods ran from the 1920s through the 1940s. There is not a machinist alive, young or old, who would not enjoy these books.
Each volume is 6x7#189, softcover, 136-150 black and white pages. .....$14.95 each
Classic Cowboy Cartoons
All of Williams' cowboy cartoons reflect a down-home humor in a lifestyle that is almost gone. For anyone who has ever lived in a bunkhouse or even in later-day crew quarters, his cartoons immediately bring back memories. Far from the social correctness of today's world, bunkhouse life was filled with practical jokes and the compromises of living at close quarters. Williams records it well with his gentle sense of humor. Volumes 3 and 4 are the earliest cartoons (from the 1920s) and Volumes 1 and 2 are from later years. They represent the best cartoons of their day, both in the quality of humor and in the accurate portrayal of cowboy life in that era.
Each volume is 6x7#189, softcover, 140-160 black and white pages. .....$14.95 each
