Western cartoonist and author Stan Lynde, creator of the nationally syndicated “Rick O’Shay” comic strip, has died of cancer in Montana. He was 81. His “Rick O’Shay” comic strip began in 1958 and ran for 20 years with an average daily readership of about 15 million people. In 1979, he launched another comic strip, “Latigo,” which ran through 1983. Lynde died Tuesday in Helena, where he lived with his wife.