Did you know that the man who illustrated The Wizard of Oz also drew
a comic strip for the daily, New York World, at the turn of the 20th
century?

W.W. Denslow created Billy Bounce in 1901. A rotund fellow in a
cap, knickers, and jacket, Billy kind of resembled a member of Munchkin Land.
And that’s not where the similarities to the Oz tales ended. A lot of Billy’s
adventures shared The Wizard of Oz‘s surrealist quality. Billy took trips
to the Moon and conversed with the Man in it. He hung out with anthropomorphic
circus bears, and took strolls with zoo animals.

Though the series only
ran a couple years (Denslow left it in 1902 and was replaced as illustrator by
C.W. Kahles), Billy Bounce was popular enough to appear on cello buttons
advertising newspapers like the Philadelphia Press and Washington
Times. His stories were also collected into a 1906 hardcover book, which had
15 color plates.