Cartoonist. He is best remembered as the creator of the western comic strip Redeye. The strip which was first released through King Feature Syndicate on September 11, 1967, and later released in a series of paperbacks in 1968, consists of screwball characters such as Redeye an overweight Chief of the Chickiepan Indian Tribe, the chief's trusted horse Loco, his wife Mawsquaw, his son Pokey who is a practical joker, his daughter Tawnee who his in love with the dumbest tribesman, tribesman Tanglefoot who is the object of Tawnee's affection, and a host of others including medicine man, squaws, and braves, who call the fictional Weed's Glimy Glutch home. A native of Richfield, Utah, Bess started his career as a magazine cartoonist and illustrator with the Corps Training Aids Section while he was in the United States Marine Corps in 1947. He joined the Corps Leatherneck Magazine in 1954 and worked with them until he retired from the military corps three years later. After leaving Leatherneck he married, and got a job working for a greeting card company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, as an art director, and also did some work for civilian magazines for sometime before becoming a fulltime cartoonist in 1967. After creating Redeye for King Feature that same year, Bess moved to Boise, Idaho, where he continued to draw and write the comic strip until he became seriously ill. In May 1988, after 21 years he retired from writing the strip and handed the comic over to fellow cartoonist Bill Yates and Mel Casson. In November 1989, Bess passed away at his home in Boise. After his death and even Yates' death in 2001, Mel Casson continues to write and draw the comic strip. As of 2008 the strip is syndicated in some 100 plus newspapers worldwide, and it continues to make people laugh more then 30 years later, although it was never really considered a best-seller.