Inez Townsend

Writer, musician, singer, songwriter, illustrator, cartoonist – it can be said that Inez Townsend (aka Inez Tribit) was an extremely talented woman. Born in England in 1877, Inez moved to the United States in 1891. Within a decade, she was writing and illustrating her first comic, Gretchen Gratz (1904). In 1913 she created Snooks and Snicks. Both creations are known for employing her signature style of “text comics,” meaning that the stories are displayed as text beneath the artwork instead of the word balloons used by other artists.

She also wrote and illustrated her own novels, two of which were published in 1916 & 1917 respectively – Indignant and The High Cost of Living.

Always creative, she co-wrote the song “Way Back Home” in 1917 with Hallie M. Swartz, dedicated to the soldiers on the front, and her own song “What the Boy Said” in 1921.

Inez Townsend (Nov. 9, 1877 – Date of Death Unknown)