Holy Moses and Hipshot

By Bennett Owen

©Used with permission of Stan Lynde

Rick O'shay was deputy sheriff...his girl was bar owner Gaye Abandon...his sidekick, a mysterious and taciturn gunslinger named Hipshot Percussion.  There were others, of course.  Doctor Basil Metabolism and Chief Horse’s Neck, plus a regular side show of colorful characters residing in Conniption a tiny, non-descript frontier village...visited by about 15 million people every single day.  For two decades.

©Used with permission of Stan Lynde

Rick O'Shay and his cartoon cohorts were the brainchild of Stan Lynde, award-winning author of eight western novels, a master storyteller with a singular talent for dialog. That combined with a draftsman's sensitive eye for detail to produce Sunday morning masterpieces like this:

©Used with permission of Stan Lynde

And they were historically accurate as well right down to the hardware. One fan recalls Hipshot flashing a smile as he exchanges an old set of ‘navy’ revolvers for a new pair of ‘armies’ while quietly remarking, ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’

©Used with permission of Stan Lynde

A cowboy’s son, one generation removed from the pioneers, Lynde grew up in central Montana, among the Crow Indians near Little Big Horn.  He was mesmerized as a young boy by tails of the Wild West and legends like “Jim Bridger, Wyatt and Doc, Wild Bill.” He poured all of that knowledge and respect into Rick O’Shay, with plenty of laughter and melancholy and lessons of life to go around: 

©Used with permission of Stan Lynde

You may be wondering where Moses fits into all of this. On his blog, oldmontana.com, Lynde tells of basically having the strip that he created and nurtured taken away from him by the distribution syndicate...and receiving a letter of condolence from one Charlton Heston.  Lynde quotes the letter on his blog and it reads in part...  “I cannot help regretting that we will see no more of the beautifully drawn and engaging characters with which you populated Conniption.”  And it ends, “Let me thank you for the pleasure you’ve given me.”  High praise from on high.

©Used with permission of Stan Lynde

Hipshot was also a man of the "talk less say more" breed. And despite his hair trigger temperament, he had time for his cat and an occasional talk with ‘The Boss.’ He does so in my favorite and most memorable Sunday cartoon of all time.  And if we're lucky enough to receive Mr. Lynde's blessing, we'll be showing it to you on Christmas day.  He is featured in the current edition of True West Magazine. The article is called ‘What History Taught Me,’ and it’s well worth reading.

Impressions of the West: Thomas McGuane

Credit: TomMcGuane.com 

Thomas McGuane’s Keep the Change is the story of Joe Starling, who grew up in Montana and moved to New York to become a successful painter. When he decides to move back to a ranch in Montana (“What made you want to go back to Montana?” “Nothing else seems to be home.” “Is that important?” “It is to me.”), he rediscovers what he loved about the western sky and grass and smell in the air.

“Joe made it a habit to ride through the yearlings every day. They were pretty well scattered out and it always took an entire morning. But he enjoyed saddling his horse in the dark and then to be rolling along as the day broke to count and check the cattle. … The great pleasure came from the grass, traveling through it horseback: the movement of the wind on its surface, the blaze of sunrise across its ocean curves. As the full warmth of the day came on, the land took on a humming vitality of cows and grass and hawks, and antelope receded dimly like something caught in your eye. Joe always rode straight into at least one covey of partridges which roared up around his horse. After the first burst, the little brick and gray chickens cast down onto a hillside and resumed feeding. Joe’s horse watched hard, then went on traveling. Instead of being someplace where he waited for the breeze through a window, Joe had gone to where the breeze came from.”

Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, pp. 169-170.          

Credit: Christopher Owen

Credit: Christopher Owen

Credit: Christopher Owen

Thomas McGuane was awarded the Center Of the American West’s Wallace Stegner Award in 2009. Here is what the CAW had to say about McGuane:

“With precision, outrageous humor, and clear-eyed candor, you have given us today’s true West, with your disdain of greed and pomposity, your everlasting love of a good stream, a fine horse, and a plain sweep of land, and your passion for simple, productive work, all of which causes you to call cowboys “drunken, wife-beating, snoose-chewing geeks” while winning them over and a great many westerners with your honest high regard for ranch hands and others who do things carefully and right, thereby showing respect for a big-sky place that may yet save itself through honoring its best traditions.”