I 1970’erne udgav Western Wind Productions den legendariske, fotorealistiske western serie Casey Ruggles i sh hæfter i overstørrelse, men om de gjorde den serie færdig, ved jeg ikke, jeg var dog så heldig at finde nogle eksemplarer i London i 1980’erne. Og så tænkte jeg ikke mere på det. Warren Tufts var en stor tegner, som jeg ikke troede, jeg ville komme til at se mere til i genoptryk. Jeg vidste end ikke, at han havde begået et endnu større western mesterværk, Lance, i perioden 1955-1960. Lance var den sidste af de store søndagsserier i helside, detaljerigdom, og flotte farver, og Tufts syndikerede den selv. Efter 85 uger blev den desværre reduceret til en halv side om søndagen. Sideløbende med søndagssiderne tegnede han også dailies i 1957 og 1958. Alt dette bliver nu genoptrykt i et portugisisk-tysk projekt, som det gode norske Thule Forlag har hægtet sig på. Således kan vi i løbet af det kommende år opleve det Prins Valiant inspirerede western mesterværk Lance i sin helhed for første gang! Vil man hellere læse Lance på engelsk end på norsk, har det amerikanske magasin Big Fun genoptrykt en del i #1-5, men slutter i 1957.
Don Markstein forklarer om serien Lance:
fra http://albiethegood.blogspot.dk/2012/07/lance-by-warren-tufts-sample-of.html
“”Lance” was the hero’s first name, not his last—his full name was Lance St. Lorne. He was an officer in the U.S. cavalry at Ft. Leavenworth, Ks., in the 1840s, when his unit’s task was to tame the Western territories, making them safe for American settlers. The setting and the task provided plenty of scope for adventure—fighting the Sioux, interacting with real historical personages like Kit Carson, and whatnot. Like Casey Ruggles, Lance was characterized by high-quality stories and art, but also by historical accuracy. Unlike, say, Lucky Luke, when Lance met someone who had really lived, that person was as old as he’d actually have been at the time, and in circumstances congruent with the known course of the person’s life. Lance started out in about a hundred or so papers. It was so successful, Tufts even did a daily version, as a companion. But his drawing was so meticulous, he was spending as much as 100 hours a week just producing the comic, leaving little time for such niceties as taking care of business. With United Feature, this had led to missed deadlines. With him responsible for the whole enterprise—something had to give. The daily didn’t last long, and the Sunday, which had originally been drawn in the full-page format popular before World War II and not easily reformatable, shrank to a half page, and then smaller yet.”
Og her er forsiden af første bind fra Thule (heja Norge!):
