Red Ryder was a popular American comic strip cowboy created by Fred Harman , an artist and former partner of Walt Disney. Red, accompanied by Little Beaver, his young Indian companion, began in 1938, appeared in over 750 newspapers and reached forty million readers. A radio show, 38 movies, and 40 commercial products extended from the strip. Harman, a founder of Cowboy Artists of America, discontinued the strip in 1963 to concentrate on his painting.
At one time, Red Ryder was pitted against The Lone Ranger in radio show Badlands. Red Ryder was notable because he usually did not kill his enemies, shooting them in the hand and disarming them instead.
Many different Red Ryder toys, such as rifles and cowboy hats, were merchandised. In the movie A Christmas Story, the plot revolves around a young boy trying to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.
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Red Ryder is also the name of a well known communications and terminal emulation software program created for the Apple Macintosh in the 1980s. It was written by Scott Watson , who founded The FreeSoft Company of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
