Out Our Way

J.R. Williams's daily strip follows small-town life through the eyes of children and adults. Here, a teacher addresses a room full of students, one remarkably disheveled, while another comments on a classmate's collar stretch from the window. The strip's humor relies on visual exaggeration and domestic observation—hallmarks of the newspaper comic that emerged in the 1910s-20s. Williams's loose, energetic line work and use of speech balloons to carry both humor and narrative were typical of the dailies that pioneered modern comic syntax: sequential panels showing cause and effect, character reactions, and sight gags that depend entirely on drawing skill and timing.