Red Ryder
Red Ryder by Fred Harman
Fred Harman (February 9, 1902-January 2, 1982) is best known as the artist of Red Ryder, "America's famous fighting cowboy." Red Ryder, star of radio, television and the Silver Screen, is probably the most successful western hero ever to come out of comics. But he grew out of an obscure series, named Bronc Peeler. Bronc was the star of an unsuccessful newspaper comic from a very minor syndicate and ran about five years before Red's own highly successful launch. When Harman drew his Bronc Peeler strip, he attempted to syndicate it himself, visiting numerous West Coast newspaper offices. In 1938, he met merchandising entrepreneur Stephen Slesinger. They worked together for a year on what would become Red Ryder. Slesinger sold the strip to NEA and embarked on an intensive campaign of merchandising and licensing with a seemingly endless parade of comic books, Big Little Books, novels, serial chapters, radio programs and products. Slesinger was so closely involved with Red Ryder, even working closely on the stories themselves, he's often credited as the strip's co-creator. Red Ryder debuted on Sunday, November 6, 1938, with the daily version added the following March 27. The first comic strip story introduced Red's long-time girlfriend, Beth Wilder; his long-time enemy, Ace Hanlon; and his sidekick, Little Beaver. His horse, Thunder, was already with him when the series opened. Little Beaver, a cute little Navaho tyke, showed up in the very first episode — earlier, in fact, if you count the Bronc Peeler incarnation, where an identical Little Beaver had been a regular. Though not maliciously intended, the characterization of Little Beaver was a good deal more stereotyped and insensitive than would be accepted today. His catch-phrase, for example, was "You betchum, Red Ryder!" Despite any embarrassing shortcomings, though, Little Beaver may have been comics' first kid sidekick to an adventure hero, beating out Robin by more than a year. Another way Red Ryder made his presence known to comic book readers was by appearing on the back covers of hundreds, perhaps thousands of separate issues, from many, many publishers, as the spokesman for Daisy Air Rifles. This grew out of a licensing deal Harman and Slesinger signed when the strip was less than a year old, allowing Daisy to manufacture a gun with Red Ryder's name and picture on it. That model was discontinued in 1954, but the agreement was extended to many more models, manufactured over a span of many more years. Harman (whose brother, by the way, was Hugh Harman, co-creator of Bosko) remained in charge of the newspaper strip for a couple of decades, and was also responsible for much of the work in the comic books. He did have a few assistants over the years (syndicate publicity to the contrary notwithstanding), but was active in guiding Red's destiny until 1962, when he retired. Bob McLeod, formerly an assistant to Harman, took it over, but didn't sign his name. After Harman retired from the strip in 1964, he turned to painting at his Albuquerque studio. He was one of the original 1965 members of the Cowboy Artists of America along with Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton and George Phippen, and Harman's paintings were included in the first annual exhibition of the Cowboy Artists of America at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Among other honors, Harman was one of only 75 white men in history to be adopted into the Navajo Nation. He died in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1982.
Complete Dailies: 1946 is 11x8, softcover fanzine, 160 black & white pages, $10.95
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