Rural Route (25 February 1968)
Walter Ball was a Canadian cartoonist, who was born and raised in Cookstown, Ontario. He was hired by the Toronto Daily Star as a graphic artist in 1932. By 1956, Ball submitted his own comic strip, 'Rural Route' to the Toronto Star Weekly. Drawing from his own childhood experiences of living on a farm, Ball drew his comic strip about the smalltown boy Willie until the weekly's demise in 1968. Ball then continued to work on the Star's art department and was promoted to art director in 1970. He retired in 1976. Together with Jimmy Frise and Doug Wright, Ball is considered an originator of the folksy humorous style that characterized several Canadian comic strips of the time.
