Stan Lynde, Creator of ‘Rick O’Shay’ Comic Strip, Dies at 81
Eliza Wiley/The Independent Record, via Associated Press
Stan Lynde, who drew the western comic strip "Rick O'Shay," at the Montana Historical Society in Helena in November.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 7, 2013
HELENA, Mont. — Stan Lynde, creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip “Rick O’Shay,” which ran for 20 years and had an average daily readership of 15 million, died here Tuesday. He was 81.
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Eliza Wiley/The Independent Record, via Associated Press
Stan Lynde donated some of his original art to the Montana Historical Society.
The cause was cancer.
Mr. Lynde, who was raised on a cattle and sheep ranch on Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation, drew on his background and his affinity for western humor to create “Rick O’Shay.” Set in the town of Conniption, it featured, in addition to the title character, the gunslinger Hipshot Percussion, the banker Mort Gage and a boy named Quyat Burp.
The characters were composites “of the old-time cowboys and the people I knew growing up,” Mr. Lynde said.
Myron Stanford Lynde was born on Sept. 23, 1931, in Billings, Mont. His mother gave him crayons and paper and taught him to draw to keep him occupied, his sister, Lorretta, said.
His parents read him the cartoons in the Sunday newspaper, and he said it was an “epiphany” when he learned that people were paid to write and draw them.
“I wanted to be a cartoonist all my life — from age 5 or 6, that’s what I wanted to do,” Mr. Lynde said in December.
He drew daily comics in high school and created the comic strip “Ty Foon” for the Navy newspaper while serving during the Korean conflict. He created “Rick O’Shay” in the 1950s while living in New York. He also drew another comic strip, “Latigo.”
He moved back to Montana in 1962 after “Rick O’Shay” was established and in about 100 papers, including The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer. When he retired from cartooning, he wrote novels.
Survivors include Mr. Lynde’s wife, Lynda, and eight children.
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