Tumbleweeds

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This article is about a comic strip drawn by Tom K. Ryan. For the plant, see tumbleweed.

Tumbleweeds is a comic strip drawn by Tom K. Ryan (who signs the strip "T. K. Ryan"), set in the "Old West". Begun in 1965, it was widely syndicated during the 1970s. It is probably best-known today for the fact that Jim Davis, creative force behind Garfield, was at one time Ryan's assistant on the strip while simultaneously developing another comic strip called Gnorm Gnat.

[edit] Overview

Tumbleweeds is set in and around the town of Grimy Gulch, in an unspecified Western territory. Other locations include the nearby village of the Poohawk tribe of Native Americans, and the US Army outpost Fort Ridiculous, which is manned by the 6 7/8 Cavalry.

Characters in the strip include:

Tumbleweeds, a cowboy.
Ace, a professional gambler.
Judge Horatio Curmudgeon Frump, magistrate.
The Sheriff
Deputy Knuckles
Hildegarde Hamhocker, the town's only woman
Echo, an orphan girl
Claude Clay, an undertaker
Wart Wimble, a gravedigger
Blackie, a saloonkeeper
Soppy Sopwell, the town drunk
Grover Galley, editor of the Desert Denouncer newspaper
Percy, newsboy and copyboy for the Denouncer
Dewlap, local cattle rancher
Snake-Eye McFoul, an outlaw
Snookie, Snake-Eye's little brother
Colonel G. Armageddon Fluster, commander of the 6 7/8 Cavalry and Fort Ridiculous
The Poohawk Chief
Little Pigeon, the Poohawk chief's daughter
Limpid Lizard, a Poohawk
Lotsa Luck, a very rich Poohawk
The Poohawk medicine man
Screaming Flea, the smallest Poohawk
Bucolic Buffalo, the biggest, strongest Poohawk