Fred Harman cartoonist cow boy

Fred Harman, cow boy,  cartoonist, Red Ryder, Little Beaver, the Duchess and all the rest who lend color and drama to the Red Ryder comic strip come alive on Fred Harman’s drawing board at his Pagosa Springs ranch. November, 1950.

Pagosa Springs artist Fred Harman created the wildly popular Red Ryder comic strip. From 1938 to 1963, cowboy hero Red Ryder fought crime throughout the West – sharing adventures with Little Beaver, a young Navajo boy, and sidekick Buckskin Blodgett.

Born in 1902 in St. Joseph, Missouri, Harman moved to Pagosa Springs with his parents when he was 2 months old. Harman spent most of his boyhood in Pagosa Springs working on his parent’s ranch and honing his drawing skills. Harman’s two younger brothers also drew. All three eventually went into cartooning. When Harman was 20, he moved to Kansas City. He and brothers Hugh and Walker worked there as animators for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. One of their co-workers was Walt Disney. After a year, Harman and Disney went into partnership to form Kaycee Studios.

They quickly went broke and Harman told the story of sneaking their belongings out of the studio at 4 a.m. to escape creditors. Disney borrowed enough money to go to Hollywood and Harman borrowed enough to go back to Pagosa Springs.

Brothers Walker and Hugh followed Disney to California, where Hugh partnered with Rudy Ising to create Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons.

In 1934, Harman launched a Western comic strip called Bronc Peeler. He promoted it himself with little success.

It wasn’t until 1938, when he was in New York illustrating Indian and cowboy life for a publisher, that he drew some samples of the Red Ryder strip. It was an instant hit.

Before 20 newspapers had contracted to run it, a studio bought movie rights. Soon there were Red Ryder comic books, a radio show, TV series and over 30 movies. Some of the movies, like this one, had a young Robert “Bobby” Blake playing Little Beaver.