James Robert Williams was born in Nova Scotia in 1887. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Detroit. Out our Way began in March 1922. Out Our Way appeared daily in my hometown newspaper and fascinated with his realistic pictures, almost mini-novels, of small-town working class life. Although the strip was based on memories of an early time I could identify strongly with Out Our Way. Like his boy characters I suffered from hand-me-downs from older brothers, shoveled coal and chopped wood in winter for the pot-bellied stove in the living room (see bottom cartoon of shivering boy, that was Christmas morning at my house) and my grandma was exactly like the woman in the third cartoon although I recollect that her fingers were usually found twisting my ear rather than my collar.
Article here.
Gallery here.
J. R. Williams collections here.
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