''Bronc Peeler'' was a Western adventure cowboy comic strip created by

Fred Harman Fred Charles Harman II (February 9, 1902 - January 2, 1982) was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular ''Red Ryder'' comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used th ...

in 1933, and ran until July 2, 1938. Harman is best known as the artist for the ''

Red Ryder Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

'' comic strip, which he created with

Stephen Slesinger Stephen Slesinger (December 25, 1901 – December 17, 1953) was an American radio, television and film producer, creator of comic strip characters and the father of the licensing industry. From 1923 to 1953, he created, produced, published, develo ...

. Harman was on a Colorado ranch when he decided to do a comic strip. He headed for Hollywood in the early 1930s, borrowed some money and began ''Bronc Peeler'', which he syndicated himself. The ''Bronc Peeler'' Sunday strip began October 7, 1934. "Peeler" is traditional

cowboy slang A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

for a specialist in breaking horses—training them to tolerate riders. "Bronc" or "bronco" is a wild or untrained horse.

Characters and story

The comics are set in the present time (the 1930s when this series was first published). Redheaded Bronc Peeler is a tough cowboy who fights bandits and rustlers with the help of his pal, Coyote Pete. ''Bronc Peeler'' introduced the

Navaho The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

youth, Little Beaver, who continued as an important supporting character in ''Red Ryder''. Comics historian

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

described the characters: :Bronc was a redheaded young man who was good in a fight, with either fists or a six-gun, and equally good on a horse. He put his skills to use against Injuns, cattle rustlers, rapacious city slickers, bandits and other villain types of the Western adventure pulps. He had a rugged Westerner's drawl, and a rugged Westerner's attraction to the ladies, to whom he was unfailingly polite. His first sidekick was an old desert rat named Coyote Pete, but Harman decided (at his wife's suggestion) to reach out to young readers by dropping Pete in favor of a kid. Bronc adopted a Navajo boy named Little Beaver following the death of the tyke's father, Chief Beaver. Little Beaver was destined to outlast Bronc. A large, unrelated Western action scene appeared in the middle of Harman's Sunday page, with the final tier of story panels positioned beneath the large center panel. Harman also drew Western lore into an extra panel, ''On the Range''. The strip came to an end in 1938 when Harman dropped it to do ''Red Ryder''.

Reprints

In 1937, Whitman published a

Big Little Book The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notably Saalfield, adopted t ...

, ''Bronc Peeler, the LOne Cowboy'', and the strip was reprinted in ''Popular Comics'' until the early 1940s. In 2012, publisher Russ Cochran reprinted ''Bronc Peeler'' pages at a large size in the first issue of ''

The Sunday Funnies ''The Sunday Funnies'' is a publication reprinting vintage Sunday comic strips at a large size (16"x22") in color. The format is similar to that traditionally used by newspapers to publish color comics, yet instead of newsprint, it is printed on ...

'', a publication devoted to reprints of vintage Sunday comic strips.

References

{{reflist

External links

Fred Harman Western Art Museum

Video of Museum and Harman's studio

''Bronc Peeler The Lone Cowboy'' (page but subsequent links do not work)
American comic strips Peeler, Bronc Peeler, Bronc 1934 comics debuts 1938 comics endings Peeler, Bronc Western (genre) comics Comics set in the United States Comics set in the 1930s Peeler, Bronc Fictional cowboys and cowgirls Fictional gunfighters