OK, I've been showing you samples of funny strips. Here's an action-adventure British strip -- and what's strange about it is that, though it's titled Gun Law, it is clearly new stories set in the mythos of the TV series Gunsmoke. It just may be the best Western comic strip I've ever seen, and that must be thanks to writer-artist Harry Bishop (born March 3, 1922). Bishop also produced a strip adaptation of Bonanza, but, according to one reference, he gave up drawing altogether in the mid-1980s because of an eye infection.

Gun Law ran in The Daily Mirror from 1956 to the late 1970s. As is the case with most of the British comic strips, I can't find more detailed information on strip dates; since the strips ran in one newspaper, nobody thought it was necessary to date the strips. They were, instead, numbered. In the case of Gun Law, Bishop produced a complete story arc for each adventure, making the strip an obvious candidate for reprinting -- but I can't find any instance of reprints. It'd be a logical license for someone in America, but it'd have to go through double licensing: one for the strip itself and one for the Gunsmoke mythos. But, man, I'd like to see it. Bishop involved Matt Dillon, Chester, Kitty, and the rest with actual people active in the American West of the era.

Here's the start of a story. Sorry for the difficulty in reading it because of the reduction required for online posting -- but just look at the art!: