The Timid Soul

Harold Tucker Webster's The Timid Soul (1931–present, Simon and Schuster) introduced the world to Caspar Milquetoast, the original "timid soul" whose gentle, hesitant nature became a cultural shorthand for meekness. Over decades, Webster's single-panel gags gently lampooned the anxieties of everyday life, with Milquetoast's flustered reactions to everything from pushy salesmen to domestic chores earning the strip a warm, enduring place in American humor. Though only a single issue was collected, the series' influence on the language and visual comedy of timidity is indelible.