Saturday, October 09, 2010

Hi-Yo, Simple!

Saturday Leftover Day.

When I was little, my favorite strip was T. K. Ryan's Tumbleweeds. I oved the characters, I loved the western setting, I love the snarky humor. In fact, I still do like them, even though I don't visit there as much as I used to. On researching the strip, I found it is still running and the author is hosting a website, where he sells a 'best of' book with autograph for only $7! I suggest you all go there, it's at www.tumbleweeds,com.

Tumbleweeds was a typical example of the early sixties sarcasm genre, if slightly late. The strip didn't start until September 1965 and hit the ground running. Some strips had to wait years to find their forte, but T. K. Ryan seems to have foun dit immediately. I think he hurt himself badly when he started using a typeletter font in the nineties or so. All at once the gags seemed to be cookie cutter as well, although there was nothing wrong with them.




















3 comments:

Brett Koth said...

Tom Ryan did end Tumbleweeds in December 2007, after 32 years, and I do miss it.

His early strips are great to see! Please post more of them!

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Oh, I didn't see that on the website. I got the impression the 'new laughs' were new strips.

Chris Smigliano said...

I agree with Brett Koth! TUMBLEWEEDS was a favorite of mine, too, And I never knew there were strips even EARLIER than the ones that came out in the first paperbacks! Post more, PLEASE!!