Russ Westover

Russell Channing Westover, born March 8, 1886, in Los Angeles, California, was an American cartoonist who created the long-running newspaper strip *Tillie the Toiler*. He began his career as a staff artist for the *San Francisco Chronicle* before moving into comic strips. Westover is best remembered for *Tillie the Toiler*, which debuted in 1921 and followed the adventures of a young working woman navigating office life and romance. The strip became a popular fixture for decades, running until 1959. Westover’s style was clean and expressive, with a light comedic touch that suited the flapper-era charm of his lead character. He wrote and drew the strip himself for most of its run, and it was adapted into a series of animated shorts and a 1941 Columbia Pictures film serial. Westover also contributed to comic books, with credits on *Four Color*, *Tillie the Toiler* comic issues, and *Large Feature Comic*, working as an artist, inker, letterer, and writer between 1929 and 1946. He died on May 3, 1966, in San Francisco. While he did not receive major industry awards, his creation remains a notable example of early workplace humor strips and a precursor to later career-girl comics.