The early McClure comics sections often had an interior page devoted to gag cartoons, usually by a cadre of their regular artists. This page from December 29 1901 offers either one or two Herriman cartoons. The one in the upper left is definite, while the unsigned one in the middle has me scratching my head. The art looks very much like Herriman, but he seldom did anthropomorphic animal gags in these early days; what say you?

The others represented on this page are Hy Mayer (bottom two-panel), Mark Fenderson (left middle), and A.D. Reed (right 4-panel strip). The well drawn gag cartoon at the top middle is initialed W.L. That’s not a McClure regular I can think of. Other possibilities that fit the initials are William H. Loomis (here’s a sample of his work) and Will Lawler; the latter doesn’t usually draw like this, so what do we think of Loomis as our mystery artist?