Gluyas Williams did a panel strip that was years ahead of its time, using conventions that wouldn't be widespread for decades to come. Initially successful as a magazine cartoonist for Life and the New Yorker, Williams also supplied the illustrations for Algonquin Round Table participant Robert Benchley.

While some panels were given over to a single large scene or gag, more often they were broken down into eight or nine divisions, unseparated by panel demarcations and picturing a single character in a small slice of life. His use of very similar images in each sub-panel to denote a short passage of time is similar to a popular fad among lazy creators in modern comics, save that Williams actually drew each image and imputed it with subtle action and personality, as opposed to cut-and-paste shortcuts.

But truly, Williams' work reminds me of none so much as Jules Feiffer, with his free-moving folks giving their soliloquies, unfettered by panels and word balloons. Williams' work contains the nascent impulse that Feiffer would later perfect, applied to the tiny tribulations of the safe suburban side of the Roaring Twenties.

Enjoy this collection of Gluyas Williams' syndicated dailies!