Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 12, 2025 | 3 comments

The gifted creator of Casey Ruggles and Lance gets his due…

By PETER BOSCH

There are three artists regularly mentioned as being the most influential on the careers of other comic artists: Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and Milton Caniff.

Warren Tufts is another who deserves mention, and since December 12 is his 100th birthday (born 1925), it’s high time he gets a 13th Dimension birthday spotlight.

While many comic artists can draw different genres, one of the hardest to do with any authenticity is the tale of the Old West. Tufts stood out in that regard. His cowboys were gritty-looking and his vistas were magnificent.

Specifically put, what director John Ford was to movies like Stagecoach (1939), Warren Tufts was to Western comics. In the 1950s, he drew two different comic newspaper strips that stand out as landmarks of the genre.

The first was Casey Ruggles, which he wrote and drew the daily and Sunday strips for, from 1949 to 1954.

The first Casey Ruggles newspaper strip. May 22, 1949.

July 24, 1949

September 25, 1949

October 16, 1949

Original art for November 11, 1951

Original art for April 12, 1953

Tufts’ dailies could be as impressive as his Sundays. Original art for December 31, 1951.

Tufts had been hoping for a Hollywood deal to turn Casey Ruggles into a television series or a movie but the newspaper syndicate turned down all offers. (They owned the rights.) In frustration, he quit the strip.

Several months later, Tufts created a new feature that many regard as his masterpiece — Lance, in which he tried to recreate the high-quality standards of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant. Lance ran from 1955 to 1960.

May 27, 1956

June 3, 1956

March 9, 1958

June 1, 1958

June 22, 1958

September 14, 1958

November 2, 1958

Tufts’ work is widely unknown among comic books fans, having only drawn a handful of comic books in the late Fifties and early Sixties, including The Rifleman, Walt Disney’s Zorro, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Detectives, and a few movie comic adaptations (including the exceptional How the West Was Won).

Walt Disney’s Zorro #8 (Dec. 1959-Feb.1960, Dell).

In the Sixties, Tufts drew in a humor style for Drag Cartoons magazine and also did the Gomer Pyle comic book.

Drag Cartoons #2 (Dec. 1963, Millar Publishing Company). Written and drawn by Tufts.

Tufts branched out to the field of TV animation, as well, by designing characters and creatures for the Jonny Quest TV series. Following are model sheets for the November 20, 1964 episode, “Shadow of the Condor.”

His range was considerable. In the Seventies, he was a regular artist on Scooby Doo… Where are You!, The Pink Panther, and other humor comic books for Western Publishing.

Scooby Doo… Where are You! #7 (Aug. 1971, Western)

Tufts was offered work on Marvel’s impressive Epic Magazine but turned it down due to wanting to focus on his other passion, designing and flying airplanes.

Tufts died July 6, 1982 in a crash of one of his planes.

An artist’s work lives on after him. And thank God we have many years of Warren Tufts work to treasure.

(The entire run of the Lance dailies and Sundays was reprinted by Classic Comics Press; they did likewise with much of Casey Ruggles.)

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MORE

— STAN DRAKE and THE HEART OF JULIET JONES: A Rich, Artistic Legacy. Click here.

— MARY PERKINS ON STAGE: A Salute to the Late LEONARD STARR, Born 100 Years Ago. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.