Lasswell was a confirmed hayseed from the sticks with much kinfolk wisdom and make-do humor. He possessed the talent for drawing clean lines and visualizing the funniest cartoon images to give each punchline preeminent punch. Lasswell fondly remembered his Big Tour with Billy to the backwoods, where DeBeck copiously recorded hillbilly phrases, while Lasswell sketched the characters, critters, and scenes he'd always known. This collaboration made comic strip history, when, in 1934, Barney Google met his distant cousin Snuffy Smith, and demand for Billy's Barney Google Comic Strip soared.