Among other things - Stan Lynde's adventures
I read in the Missoulian recently where cowboy cartoonist Stan Lynde is off on a new adventure. He and his wife have moved to Ecuador.
I first met Stan in the 1960s at a Montana Editorial Assn. annual meeting at the Big Mountain ski area near Whitefish. That was fairly early in his syndicated cartoon strip “Rick O’Shay.” He drew and wrote that from 1957 to 1977. A lot of readers will recall Stan’s characters in that strip: Rick was a lawman in the mythical western town of Conniption. Among the characters was the town doctor, Basil Metabolism, MD; his friend, a former gunslinger, Hipshot Percussion, and Hipshot’s mean old cat, Belle Starr; the publisher of the weekly Conniption Cloudburst, a single mom, Gaye Abandon and her son Quayat – as the comic series progressed, Rick and Gaye got married; editor of the Cloudburst was Clarion McCall; then there was Deuces Wild, a shady gambler; the preacher, Jubal Lee; Auntie Climax ran the hotel. There were others, I can’t remember them all. Real-life politicians and citizens were occasionally mentioned in posters in the background – Press Association Secretary Dorothy M. Johnson, herself a prominent author, was mentioned twice.
Dorothy Johnson, incidentally, was responsible for my return to Montana in 1959 – but that’s a story in itself.
Lynde and the Chicago Tribune-New York Post syndicate couldn’t agree on a new contract in 1977 and the Lynde was dropped as the artist. A two-man team was signed to do the art work and story. They tried to imitate Lynde’s style but it was just wasn’t the same and eventually the feature was dropped.
Another door opened for Stan Lynde the next year. In 1978 he syndicated a new western comic strip, Latigo, with the Field Newspaper Syndicate. He retired Latigo in 1984 and with encouragement from his friend, Barry McWilliams, he introduced Grass Roots as a self-syndicated series of cartoons for weekly newspapers throughout the United States. McWilliams publishes the J.P. Doodles cartoon series that runs in over 300 weekly newspapers in the US.
He published the series in a book in 1985 and added his editorial-type comments on pages facing the black and white drawings. Main characters are a couple cowpokes, Billy and Shag, who discuss subjects such as politics, cattle prices, gun control, postage increases, religion, weather, misdirected baggage on stagecoaches, hunting, grocery prices, child abuse, victims’ rights, voting, schools, and just about everything that continues to be newsworthy today
During the mid-1980s, I was developing a freelance story on the Beartooth Highway and my wife and I dropped in on Stan at his home near Red Lodge. He showed us his latest project – his first religious oil painting still unfinished at that time. I have a framed copy of it in my home office. Stan co-founded New Inspirations, devoted to production and sale of Christian art prints, cards and books. He expressed his Christian commitment on the 700 Club television program and in some national Christian publications.
In Montana’s Centennial Year of 1989, Lynde and McWilliams dropped by our home in Polson and Stan gave me a framed copy of his large centennial poster, which is also on the wall in my home office. McWilliams was the promoter of the Great Centennial Cattle Drive.
In recent years, Stan has concentrated on writing a series of eight Merlin Fanshaw western novels. Now, at age of 81, he his wife Lynda, are Ecuador-bound. The Missoulian article said Lynde has been calling the Ecuador trip his epilogue, but of late Lynde’s referring to it as the first chapter of his brand new book.
His latter description doesn’t surprise me.