Casey Ruggles #1 May 22, 1949

Here is something pretty neat, the first Casey Ruggles strip. Unlike most strips that start with dailies and then grow into Sundays or start with both dailies and Sundays, Casey Ruggles started as Sundays before the dailies were added and this is the first one. I have always been a fan of Tuft's art and over the years he had some interesting assistants and ghosts including Alex Toth, Rubimor, Al Plastino and Nick Cardy. This Sunday is pretty impressive with that spectacular stage coach entrance. This comes from my friend John Biernat's collection and although he knew strips well I think he had forgotten this was the first strip as it would have been uncharacteristic of John to not point out important items in his collection. Very happy to have it. It does have a bit of water damage and I am debating getting it conserved.

Warren Tufts is a pretty interesting character too. Called a perfectionist, he put 80 hours a week in on Casey Ruggles and struggled to meet deadlines. The strip was widely popular and at one point there was an offer from television to create a TV series. When the syndicate put a stop to that avenue, Tufts got frustrated and left the strip which soon ended after he left. He later went on to create another popular strip, Lance. By the time 1960 rolled around he had had enough with syndication and went on to do a bit of comic work too although that didn't pay nearly as well as syndicated work. I think he is a fantastic artist and very disciplined in his approach to characters and action. It is a shame we only got a decade of his best work to enjoy and what a decade that was.