In the latter years of Gene Carr’s long association with the New York World he eased up on his tremendous workload a bit. In the period 1917-20 his two main features were Lady Bountiful and this one, Poor Mister W. This strip was a fairly nondescript family sitcom featuring a harried hubby. It had little if nothing out of the ordinary to recommend it. In fact the only aspect that I find interesting is the little conceit of often having Mr. W’s speech balloons appear within puffs of smoke from his cigar.

Poor Mr. W ran from April 8 1917 to March 28 1920. Many of the strips are unsigned, which is unusual for Carr. I wonder if a ghost was often charged with producing this strip.