Out Our Way

Distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the cartoon series was noted for its depiction of American rural life and the various activities and regular routines of families in small towns.

[1] The panel introduced a cast of continuing characters, including the cowboy Curly and ranch bookkeeper Wes.

[4][5] The content of Out Our Way was based on Williams' own life experiences, as noted by Michael H. Price in the Fort Worth Business Press: Cartooning can become a higher art, if motivated by urges greater than rattling off an easy gag or beating the next deadline.

The feature draws upon the writer-artist's personal background as a muleskinner (and industrial machinist, and prizefighter, and family man) in ways that make the individual episodes — each self-contained panel suggesting a larger story — as resonant today as when new ..."It was just this little knack I'd developed for drawing things," Williams told The Saturday Evening Post in 1953.

Williams' range of experiences, coupled with a gentle sarcasm and a keen observational sense, made his work unique.

[6]Williams used Out Our Way as an umbrella title for several alternating series, which carried the subtitle hand-lettered within the panel border.

These included The Bull of the Woods, with gags focusing on the foreman of a machine shop, and a depiction of small town family life in Why Mothers Get Gray.

J. R. Williams' Out Our Way (November 6, 1940)