''Rick O'Shay'' is a

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

created by

Stan Lynde Myron Stanford Lynde (September 23, 1931 – August 6, 2013) was an American comic strip artist, painter and novelist. Biography Born 23 September 1931 in Billings, Montana, he was raised on a sheep ranch near Lodge Grass. He attended the ...

, which debuted as a

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

on April 27, 1958. The daily comic strip began on May 19 of the same year.''Rick O'Shay''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

. from the original on September 29, 2015. It was distributed worldwide through the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. The final ''Rick O'Shay'' comic strips written and drawn by Lynde were the daily for 7 May 1977 and the Sunday for July 17, 1977. He left the syndicate after a disagreement. As the syndicate owned the rights to the strip, the popular ''Rick O'Shay'' comic strip was continued by others: Marian Dern (writer),

Alfredo Alcala Alfredo P. Alcala (August 23, 1925 – April 4, 2000) was a Filipino comics artist, born in Talisay, Negros Occidental in the Philippines. Alcala was an established illustrator whose works appeared in the ''Alcala Komix Magazine''. His 1963 cr ...

and Mel Keefer (artists). Publication ended on March 8, 1981.

Characters and story

The strip is set in the Western town of Conniption where Rick O'Shay is the deputy

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

, since the town is too small to have a full sheriff. His best friend is gunslinger Hipshot Percussion. Other key characters include gambler Deuces Wilde, dance hall owner Gaye Abandon, physician Dr. Basil Metabolism (and his nurse, Ophelia Pulse), gunsmith and Civil War veteran Cap'n Ball, banker Mort Gage and a boy named Quyat Burp. The neighboring Kyute Indian tribe includes Chief Horse's Neck, his ugly but sweet daughter Moonglow and her persistent suitor Crazy Quilt.

Books

Lynde and his wife formed

Cottonwood Publishing Cottonwood Publishing is now a small press publisher residing in Wolfforth, Texas, established 2019. It is owned and operated by author and secondary teacher Jefferson Marshall and his wife Jordan to publish mainly children's fiction. Writings by ...

, which later acquired the rights to ''Rick O'Shay''. The company has published reprints, posters, collectibles and a new two-part comic book story, ''The Price of Fame'' (1992), featuring Rick and Hipshot. They reprinted all of the dailies from the beginning up through 1964, except for one week in December 1963. They also published ''A Month of Sundays'' reprinting 60 Sunday strips from the 1970s, 32 of which are in color. Further plans for reprints were put on hold after some of the original artwork was destroyed in a fire. ''

The Menomonee Falls Gazette ''The Menomonee Falls Gazette'' (subtitled "The international newspaper for comic art fans") was a weekly tabloid published in the 1970s by Street Enterprises that reprinted newspaper comic strips from the United States and the U.K. Comic strips ...

'' reprinted dailies from September 24, 1973 to March 13, 1976. ''

Comics Revue ''Comics Revue'' is a bi-monthly small press comic book published by Manuscript Press and edited by Rick Norwood. Don Markstein edited the publication from 1984 to 1987 and 1992 to 1996. As of 2020, it has published more than 350 issues, making ...

'' magazine reprinted strips from the week missing in the Cotonwood books in issue #231, and is reprinting all of the dailies, starting where Cottonwood Publishing left off, in issues #227. They have published all of the Stan Lynde dailies, and are currently publishing the Sundays.Lynde, Stan, ''Rick O'Shay, Hipshot, and Me– A Memoir'', Cottonwood Graphics, 1990.

Style

The backgrounds were realistically drawn; the characters were originally cartoonish, but became more realistic over the years. There are surreal themes mixed in (such as the pun-laden names). By the late 1960s, elements of adventure, philosophy, morality and tragedy — such as Hipshot teetering on the brink of death following a gunfight — were added to the storyline. Hipshot is frequently referred to as an "outlaw", and in one strip he decided to regain his losses at poker by holding up the local bank. Sometimes in the Sunday strip he is shown alone, on horseback, in the Western background, speaking to his Maker, whom he addresses as "Boss". He does not attend church and prefers to recognize his God in a privately styled fashion.

References

External links

www.stanlyndeauthor.com
nbsp;— Stan Lynde official 'blog
stanlynde.net
nbsp;— Stan Lynde site {{Tribune Content Agency comics 1958 comics debuts 1981 comics endings American comic strips O'Shay, Rick Fictional gunfighters O'Shay, Rick Western (genre) comics Western (genre) comics characters O'Shay, Rick