Comic strips foreshadowed the workings of comic books. As soon as one genre or character or notion succeeded others would rush in to cash in on its success. Even the tiniest hamlet had a weekly newspaper, places with two or more crossroads boasted a daily paper, every sizable city had two in furious competition, the largest cities might have a dozen. With a few conspicuous exceptions (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal), every one of those thousands of geographical locations needed comic strips by the handful. Few even of the most famous ran in more than 500 papers: a trip to a new city often meant seeing a page of utterly unfamiliar strips. Sunday papers ran separate, full-color comic sections featuring some Sunday versions of daily strips and some strips that ran only on Sundays. These strips, reaching tens of millions of households in an era when virtually nothing else appeared in full color, were kings of popular culture, the most popular and most-read sections of newspapers, beloved by all ages. Selling a comic strip was the dream of most young artists, a goal reachable by all who had a fertile brain full of gags, at least half-decent talent, and the willingness to toil long hours over a drafting board.

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Russ Westover fit the archetype. Other than a couple of early jobs he spent his entire life (1886-1966) drawing, first on the wrapping of parcels in his father’s store and eventually as a magazine illustrator and comic artist. As with virtually all others of that description, he wrote and drew a number of comics like Snapshot Bill, Ginger Pop, Fat Chance, Looie and His Tin Lizzie, and The Demon Demonstrator until one finally clicked.

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The era immediately following WWI is rightly known as the period of women’s emancipation, so naturally a string of working girl strips met the apparent need. Somebody’s Stenog by Alfred Hayward led the way in 1918, followed by Wood Cowan’s Miss Information in 1919, and the big breakthrough in 1920 of Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner by Martin Branner. Winnie took off immediately, landing in over 100 papers, spawning a series of movie shorts in 1926, and earning a comic book with her name on the title.

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There’s little doubt that Winnie was the inspiration for Tillie, who debuted just three months later on January 3, 1921. Both started out as daily gag strips and evolved into months-long continuing storylines but the resemblance stops there. Winnie was efficient, wholesome, and the support of her ever-extending family. Tillie was one of the worse people not explicitly a villain ever to head a comic strip. She was lazy, bad at her job, and sufficiently narcissistic and self-entered to earn a DSM label. A 1925 promo ad for the strip roasts her royally.