Rick O'Shay: Hipshot's Cat

Recently been reading Rick O'Shay, Hipshot & Me, Stan Lynde's autobiography / best of tome, which as you can see, not only features Stan's typically warm-hearted memoirs, but ten full stories from his magnificent Western strip set in the old frontier town of Conniption.
One of the tales not featured is this one, where supercool gunslinger Hipshot Percussion takes centre stage. Lynde was a master at balancing drama and comedy, as here when a bunch of low down rattlesnakes steal Hipshot's feline friend, Belle Star. Man, are they gonna regret that.

Rick O' Shay

Here's yet another great newspaper strip reprint book I picked up in Cambridge's legendary remaindered bookshop back in The Bronze Age. I know we have tons of deluxe limited edition reprint tomes these days, but I still kinda miss these tatty old paperbacks of strips I'd never heard of.
Rick O'Shay actually began life in 1958, running until 1981, and is a glimpse into the old western town of Conniption, as watched over by Deputy Sheriff Rick & his ace pal, the laid back gunslinger Hipshot Percussion.




It's a beautifully warm-hearted, gentle strip, and creator Lynde's love for the wide open spaces of America, and for the simplicity of his character's lives, shines through in every panel. The best member of the cast among the town's shopkeepers, drunks, lawyers, & n'er do wells is obviously Hipshot, a violent man with a gentle heart, who has a quiet spirituality to him.
It is a comedy, of sorts, but it's also subtly about people & life. Here's some examples.