Out Our Way

Out Our Way was a daily comic panel created by J. R. (James Robert) Williams (1887-1957) and syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association starting on March 20, 1922. It was an umbrella title for several alternating series which centered on small-town and working-class folk. The series changed over the years, but the most prominent were The Bull of the Woods (machine shop), Curly and gang (modern cowboys), The Willets (a family), Worry Wart (another family though mostly just a younger and older brother), and the U.S. Cavalry. A Sunday page was added later; this featured just the Willet family and was drawn by Neg Cochran and George Scarbo. At its height, Out Our Way appeared in more than 700 papers and was read by millions. It is often described as the most clipped and posted newspaper strip ever (at least back in the day when posted meant stuck to something. The strip continued until 1977, twenty years after Williams' death.