Chester Warren Tufts (December 12, 1925 – July 6, 1982),Chester Tufts

Social Security Number In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to ...

564-20-2613, at the

Social Security Death Index The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the Social Security Administration, United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Mas ...

via GenealogyBank.com. Source gives death date only as "July 1982". best known as Warren Tufts, was an American

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

and

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artist-writer best known for his syndicated

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

adventure strip '' Casey Ruggles'', which ran from 1949 to 1954.

Comic strips

In 1949, Warren Tufts created the comic strip '' Casey Ruggles'', set against the backdrop of the Old West. Distributed by United Feature, launching May 22, 1949, it initially appeared only in the

Sunday comics The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

, but when the story became popular, a daily strip was added.''Casey Ruggles''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia 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 ...

Archived
from the original on March 8, 2015. Because Tufts was a perfectionist who often worked 80-hour weeks, he had trouble meeting deadlines, even though he had help from numerous assistants and

ghosts A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

Nick Cardy Nicholas Viscardi (October 20, 1920 – November 3, 2013), known professionally as Nick Cardy and Nick Cardi, was an American comics artist best known for his DC Comics work on Aquaman, the Teen Titans and other major characters. Cardy was induct ...

Ruben Moreira Ruben Moreira (July 27, 1922 – May 21, 1984) was a Puerto Rican comic book artist and writer best known for his work on ''Tarzan'' and as a DC Comics artist. Biography Ruben Moreira moved with his mother to New York City when he was fou ...

Al Plastino Alfred John Plastino (December 15, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American comics artist best known as one of the most prolific Superman artists of the 1950s, along with his DC Comics colleague Wayne Boring. Plastino also worked as a comics w ...

and

Alex Toth Alexander Toth (June 25, 1928 – May 27, 2006) was an American cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but he is also known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout ...

. As ''Casey Ruggles popularity grew, Tufts received an offer from a major

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

studio to produce a ''Casey Ruggles'' TV show. However,

United Feature United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along wi ...

nixed the offer on the grounds that a TV show would make the strip less popular. In anger, Tufts left United Feature in 1954, and ''Casey Ruggles'' ended shortly afterward, as the replacement artist, Al Carreño, apparently could not maintain reader interest. Tufts' contract with the syndicate required that they be given first refusal on his next strip, so he created ''The Lone Spaceman'', a science-fiction

Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

parody he was sure United Feature would refuse. After the syndicate did, Tufts reconsidered the strip's value and self-syndicated it. He then created, wrote, drew and self-syndicated one of the last and full-page comic strips, the

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

cavalry adventure ''

Lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier ( lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike si ...

'', which comics critic

Bill Blackbeard William Elsworth Blackbeard (April 28, 1926 – March 10, 2011), better known as Bill Blackbeard, was a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art ...

called "the best of the page-high adventure strips undertaken after the 1930s".

Comic books

However, the job of not only writing and drawing but also traveling around the country from city to city to sell the strip proved daunting, and in 1960, Tufts left the comic strip field. He drew some comic books for

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was originally an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated this way from 1962 to 1984. Currently, Gold Key Comics is owned b ...

, including ''

Korak, Son of Tarzan Korak, a fictional character, is the ape name of John "Jack" Clayton III, the son of Tarzan and Jane Porter. History Jack first appeared in the original ''Tarzan'' novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He was introduced as an infant in the non-Tarzan ...

'', ''

The Pink Panther ''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the classic film '' The Pi ...

'', ''

The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan ''The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''The Amazing Chan Clan'') is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, animated by Eric Porter Studios in Australia and broadcast on CBS from S ...

'' and ''

Wagon Train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...

'', but the fast pace and low pay of the comic book industry at that time kept him from doing his best work. He also drew an adult comic book, ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', and wrote and illustrated a serialized story for ''Sports Flying'' magazine.

Television

On TV, he lent his voice, lips and artistic talents to Cambria Studios' production of the Syncro-Vox series '' Captain Fathom'' (1965), and is credited as story director on

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

's '' ABC Saturday Superstar Movie'' (1972) and ''

Challenge of the Super Friends ''Challenge of the Superfriends'' is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from September 9, 1978, to December 23, 1978, on ABC. The complete series (16 episodes) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and ...

'' (1978). He also played the character Gator in the "Dos Pinos" episode of the TV series ''The Westerner'' (1960). He was killed in 1982, in the crash of an airplane of his own design that he was piloting.Warren Tufts
at the

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...

. Gives death date as July 6, 1982
Archived
from the original on March 8, 2015. He was living in

El Dorado County, California El Dorado County (), officially the County of El Dorado, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 191,185. The county seat is Placerville. The County is part of the Sacramento- Roseville-A ...

, at the time.

References

External links

*
Tufts entry at Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tufts, Warren 1925 births 1982 deaths American comic strip cartoonists Writers from Fresno, California American comics writers American comics artists American animators 20th-century American male actors American male voice actors American male television actors American television writers American male television writers Television producers from California Aviators from California Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States American magazine illustrators American male radio actors American radio writers Male actors from Fresno, California Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1982 20th-century American businesspeople Screenwriters from California 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American male writers

Comic strips

Comic books

Television

References

Further reading

External links