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Montana’s Cartoonist and Storyteller Stan Lynde
Myron Stanford “Stan” Lynde was born September 23, 1931 in Billings, Montana. He was raised on a cattle and sheep ranch near Lodge Grass, the Crow Indian Reservation, and the Little Big Horn Memorial Battlefield. According to his sister, Loretta, their mother gave him crayons and paper and taught him to draw to keep him occupied.
From childhood he learned to love the ways of the west taught to him by Native Americans and the cowboys in Southeastern Montana.
“I spent a lot of time out on the range with my mom and dad, and I met a lot of the old-timers out there and loved to listen to their stories,” Lynde said in a 1995 interview with the Daily Inter Lake newspaper.
“Cowboys were my heroes,” Lynde told the Helena Independent Record newspaper in December 2012. “I followed them around and they played with me.”
Each week his parents read him the cartoons in the Sunday newspaper. When he was around age 5, Lynde learned people were paid to write and draw cartoons and decided on his career.
In high school he drew daily comics and while serving during the Korean conflict he created the comic strip “Ty Foon” for the Navy newspaper.
He attended the University of Montana, School of Journalism, in 1951. He didn’t feel that was the right fit for his creativity.
Later in the 1950s, he moved to New York and leaned on his childhood memories to create the “Rick O’Shay” comic strip which took place in the western town of Conniption with characters gunslinger Hipshot Percussion, banker Mort Gage and a kid named Quyat Burp. He incorporated his western upbringing, storytelling and humor. In 1958, after being turned down by twelve big cartoon syndicates, Lynde finally got his “Rick O’Shay” strip accepted by the Chicago Tribune/New York Times syndicate. It ran in about 100 papers across the nation including Montana papers, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Lynde moved back to Montana in 1962 and lived in Billings and then Helena. He bought a 160-acre ranch and branded his cattle with “RIK” in honor of his cartoon hero “Rick O’Shay.”
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2001 - 2010 Brand Registrations Book 12
Livestock brand registrations for 2001-2010. The listing provides the name of the person who registered the brand, address, county of range, the date of registration, a picture of the brand, and the location of the brand on the animal.
[Stan Lynde and two unidentified men at 'Gates of Hell' film premiere, Billings, Montana].
View of Stan Lynde (center) and two unidentified men at 'Gates of Hell' film premiere in Billings, Montana.
[John Melcher, Lee Metcalf, Robert F. Kennedy, Willard Fraser, and Stan Lynde in Billings, Montana].
A group portrait of Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy with Montana Senators, John Melcher and Lee Metcalf, Billings Mayor Willard Fraser, and cartoonist, Stan Lynde at a political convention in Billings, Montana.
Stan Lynde, honorary smokejumper in 1971, presented by Bud Moore.
A contract dispute with his syndicate in 1977 cause him to stop drawing the comic strip. Since “Rick O’Shay,” was owned by the syndicate, others drew the comic strip, continuing it until 1981.
He learned to own what he created and in 1979 launched “Latigo” a comic strip about a lawman in the Old West and his Christian faith. It only ran for four years. Lynde attributed its demise to a decline in popularity of adventure-style comics with continuing plots.
In 1990 a fire destroyed his home and studio in Billings.
“We lost all the proofs from comic strips over the years, all the original art, and all our personal belongings,” Lynde said. “We came up to the Flathead in a U-Haul truck and started over,” he told the Daily Inter Lake in 1995.
To support their hero, fans sent many of the originals to Lynde and he managed to recompile the collected set of “Rick O’Shay” strips.
Lynde retired from cartooning and wrote eight western novels featuring the character Merlin Fanshaw, a lawman.
In 2002 he published Vigilante Moon, a historical novel about Montana.
“I’ve been able to do the work I love for an appreciative audience,” Lynde said in 2012. “I love this state. ... If my tombstone said something about Montana, I’d be really happy. I’ve never met any state with people who have such character.”
According to “Art of the Cartoon: Stan Lynde” by David Reese, (montanaliving.com, Feb.18, 2007), Lynde included the western ethics into his comic strip.
“Those ethics were popular not only with Montana people in post-World War II, but they resonated across the national readership as well,” Reese said.
Lynde died in 2013 in Helena, Montana, at age 81.
Stan Lynde and his wife, Lynda, donated many of their personal possessions to the Montana Historical Society. This donation included some of his original cartoon drawings, memorabilia from the 1989 Great Montana Centennial Cattle drive - which he headed up, and his signature white cowboy hat.
A "Rick O'Shay Reading Kit" was donated to the Montana Historical Society by retired schoolteacher Sandra Messick and her husband Robert. These items became part of an exhibit at the Historical Society Museum in 2016, "From the Heart: Stan Lynde’s Comic Creations."
[Montana Historical Society Volunteer Coordinator Katie White (left) and Vicky Smith (right), MHS volunteer, at the opening reception for an exhibit about the work and life of Stan Lynde at the Montana Historical Society Museum, Helena, Montana]. (2016)
Exhibit Author: Michelle McConnaha
Bibliography
Montana Historical Society. "Stan Lynde: A Montana Good Guy." Society Star. Winter 2012. June 19, 2024. https://mhs.mt.gov/Membership/Docs/newsletter/2012SocietyStarWinter.pdf
Montana Historical Society. "'Comic Creations' to Honor Stan Lynde" Society Star. Fall 2015. June 19, 2024. https://mhs.mt.gov/Membership/Docs/newsletter/2015AutumnStarWeb121650.pdf
Montana Historical Society. "Learning More about Stan Lynde." Society Star. Spring 2016. June 19, 2024. https://mhs.mt.gov/Membership/Docs/newsletter/2016SprStarWEB.pdf
Daily Inter Lake. "Western cartoonist dies at age 81 - Stan Lynde lived in the Flathead Valley for many years." Daily Inter Lake, August 7, 2013. June 19, 2024. https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2013/aug/07/western-cartoonist-dies-at-age-81-stan-lynde-6/
Los Angeles Times. "Stan Lynde dies at 81; created ‘Rick O’Shay’ comic strip." Los Angeles Time, August 12, 2013. June 19, 2024. https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-stan-lynde-20130809-story.html
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