Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds is an American comic strip that offered a skewed perspective on life on the American frontier. Writer-artist Tom K. Ryan (June 6, 1926 – March 12, 2019) (who signed the strip "T.K. Ryan") was very familiar with conventions of the Western genre he satirized. Launched September 6, 1965, the strip was distributed for decades initially by the Register and Tribune Syndicate and later by the King Features Syndicate after its acquisition. After a 42-year run, Ryan retired and, rather than let it become a "zombie strip", brought Tumbleweeds to a conclusion on December 30, 2007. Jim Davis, who created Garfield, was Ryan's assistant (from 1969 to 1978) while developing another strip, Gnorm Gnat. Characters and story Tumbleweeds is set in and around the town of Grimy Gulch, whose population was stated as 49 (later it was crossed out and incremented to 50, and sometimes is revised down when the villain Snake-Eye leaves town), in an unspecified Western territory. Other locations include the nearby village of the Poohawk tribe of Native Americans, and the United States Army outpost Fort Ridiculous, manned by the 6 7/8 Cavalry. Grimy Gulch Tumbleweeds, the main character, is a laconic cowpoke who would rather be anywhere else, but has no real ambition to do anything. Like his namesake, he is content to tumble wherever human foibles may carry him. His worst nightmare is to be caught by - and married to - Hildegard Hamhocker. Blossom, Tumbleweeds' first horse; usually found asleep. Epic, Tumbleweeds' toothless, alcoholic, plug-chewing, sway-backed second horse; once a U.S. Cavalry horse, but drummed out of the service. Ace DeSilk, a professional gambler, Tumbleweeds' best pal and a very smooth operator. Judge Horatio Curmudgeon Frump is the magistrate/mayor of Grimy Gulch, a pompous windbag who became Justice of the Peace and boasts that he cannot be bought, but is open to "rental fees"! The Sheriff, a man with a ridiculous handlebar moustache, is the short-handed "long arm of the law". Deputy Knuckles, comic relief who does not carry a gun, but has a yo-yo instead. Quiet Burp is a diminutive lawman from Texas. His name, a play on Wyatt Earp, is a character name also used in the comic strip Rick O'Shay. Hildegard Hamhocker, the town's only known woman, is drawn as a stereotypical homely old maid, trying to snag Tumbleweeds as a husband. Echo is an orphan girl. Cute and precocious, she knows how to use those qualities when necessary.