Russ Westover

Russ Westover (March 8, 1886, Los Angeles, California - May 3, 1966) was a cartoonist best known for his long-run comic strip "Tillie the Toiler".

In San Francisco, Westover studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, and he was 18 years old when he landed a job as a sports cartoonist with the "San Francisco Bulletin". He also contributed to the "San Francisco Chronicle", the "San Francisco Post" and the "Oakland Herald". His first comic strip, "Daffy Dan", about a baseball player, was published in the "Post".

Relocating to New York, he was at the "New York Herald" when he drew his first nationally syndicated comic, "Snapshot Bill" (1914), followed by "Ginger Pop", "Fat Chance", "Looie and His Tin Lizzie" and "The Demon Demonstrator". He also worked as an illustrator for "Life" and "Judge" (1918-21).

Leaving the "Herald", he began "Tillie the Toiler" for King Features Syndicate in 1921, and this working-girl strip quickly established a wide readership, leading to a 1927 film adaptation by Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures. In 1926, he added another strip, "The Van Swaggers", to his Sunday page.

When Westover retired in the early 1950s, Bob Gustafson continued "Tillie the Toiler" until 1959.

Westover was 80 when he died in 1966.