J.R. Williams was born James Robert Williams in Nova Scotia in 1887. Shortly after his birth, J.R.’s family moved to Detroit. At age fifteen, J.R. quit school to work as an apprentice machinist in Ohio. He soon moved to Arkansas and then to Oklahoma, where for six years he drifted about the territory, working on ranches when in need of money.

After meeting and marrying Lida Keith, J.R. settled back into a job as a machinist. However, Williams used his spare time to cartoon, producing works based on his wandering experiences as well as his job.

In 1922, J.R. received an offer from NEA Syndicate, and the first "Out Our Way" ran on March 20 of that year. The cartoon centered on ranch life and featured such characters as Curly, the older, traditional cowboy, and Wes, the pudgy ranch bookkeeper from the East. J.R. is well-known for his sometimes disturbingly real depiction of the relationship between humans and animals, both wild and domestic.

"Out Our Way" ran seven days a week in the syndicate’s papers throughout J.R.’s career. The works appearing here are not his originals. Indeed, J.R. drew his daily cartoon on a larger scale than that of the images that appeal here, allowing for great detail even after reduction to publication.

Ace Reid

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