Learning The White Man's Ways for Fun & Profit

 July 30, 2025

   When I was growing up in Mohave County my honky elders often opined: "If only the Indians could learn the White Man's ways, then all would be good for our nation." It took some time but 38 years ago those well-meaning Lutherans got their wish.

   In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling, in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians. That ruling led to the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which claimed that sovereign tribes could offer the same kind of gaming approved in the state where they were located. This planted the seeds of what is today a $30 billion Indian casino industry with 480 gambling joints in 28 states. The simple legislative act is credited with rebuilding crumbling res economies, but what it actually did, was captured in this brilliant cartoon by Dan Piraro way back in 2006:

(True West paid $150 for the right to run this)

   And so, today, with tribes kicking out tribe members for not being Indian enough—so they can make more money—I guess you could safely say that American In-dins have learned the White Man's ways, and How! 

"We made them an offer they couldn't refuse."

—Don Corny-Leone

Shot for Shot at The O.K. Fight

 July 29, 2025

   Running in circles, but then, that is the way of the world. And, by circles, I mean I am back to where I once belonged—to quote the "cute" Beatle. And, where I once belonged is on the hunt for visual coverage of the most infamous thirty seconds in the history of the Old West.

"30 Seconds—30 Shots—in 30 frames"

   Can I actually tell that convoluted episode in thirty scenes: Hmmm. I think I can. For one thing I have been drawing the whole shebang for over 30 years! Ha. 

   Where to start. Okay, How about here?

Daily Whip Out:

"Hafford's Corner, 2:20 p.m. October 26, 1881"

   Unlike the movies where the Earps and Holliday are walking around town like anonymous drifters, the crowd at Hafford's Corner (Fourth And Allen Street in Tombstone) grew quite large with an estimated 150 locals and miners gathering in knots, gossiping like little girls on a schoolyard, expecting a fight and trading rumors and running down the street to where the cowboys were and telling them what was going on at Hafford's Corner.

Mark Lee Gardner in a BBB Doc Shirt

  And, speaking of historians who know this story, Mark Lee Gardner has a little different take on the story as it relates to a certain deadly dentist and his Iowa compadre:

"Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, like anyone else then and now, have their fair share of contradictions and failings. They made their way not in the Old West but in the New West, young towns and camps on the fringe of morality, where money flowed through gambling, prostitution, and rampant speculation. In this New West, a sordid history or lifestyle didn’t preclude respectability. A onetime pimp and horse thief could become an upstanding peace officer. A boozing, gun- toting gambling addict could also be a successful dentist— for a time, anyway— with plenty of satisfied customers. And the two could be friends without anyone giving it a second thought. Wherever Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday found themselves, though, there was one constant. Trouble seemed to follow Wyatt. Doc made his own."

—Mark Lee Gardner, in his forthcoming book "Brothers of The Gun" 

   Add to that Mark's opening quote from Kate and you can take all this to the bank.

Daily Whip Out: "Big Nose Kate In Red"

"Some is sad and some is quite laughable, but such is life any way we take it."

—Big Nose Kate

The Leaner Has Fallen

 July 28, 2025

   Saguaros can often live for several centuries and I sometimes imagine Al Sieber and Wyatt Earp riding by these sentinels on their Arizona treks.

The Leaner, July 4, 2024

Yes, we all loved the Leaner.

Our grandkids On Christmas Day, 2024

   I have been walking by this sagging big guy daily for several years now and I must admit to speeding up slightly when I pass under him both going up and coming down the hill. On the other hand, given their tenacity for survival, I sometimes wondered if perhaps he would outlive me, teetering at a 45 degree angle for another century, or more. Here he is last week.

The Leaner, July 22, 2025

      Defiant to the end. Well, that was not to be.

The Leaner Has Fallen, July 28, 2026

   I knew if he did fall, he would block the entire road and apparently someone who lives up the hill came down with a chain saw and cut him up into pieces to clear the road.

On a related note, Kathy and I have been married for 46 years, today.

Kathy Sue & BBB at Pioneer, Arizona

July 28, 1979

(and we're still standing!)

"Long may we lean."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Chasing First Light

 July 27, 2025

   Still chasing early morning light. 

Daily Whip Out: "First Light On The Creek"

   I am obsessed with this scene because every morning when I go out for my walk with Uno at 5:45 I see this.

Actual First Light On Elephant Butte

   As you can clearly see, from my phone shot, those canyon walls on Elephant Butte are pretty spectacular and, so far, they have resisted my attempts at capturing them accurately. True,  I have some serious sketches but it's a math problem I haven't quite figured out yet.

First Light Sketches #37, #38

First Light at Top, #39

Daily Whip Out:

"Superstitions First Light Study"

"Everything is angles and geometry."

—Jerry Seinfeld

An Old True West Doorstop Finds A New Home

 July 26, 2025

I had a great lunch yesterday at Tonto Bar & Grill with the first ladies of True West magazine and that would be Sheri Riley Jensen, Rebecca Edwards and our longtime business manager, Carole Compton Glenn (1999-2023).

Sheri, BBB, Rebecca and Carole at Tonto

Carole brought me a gift of a doorstop from the True West offices in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It is basically a heavy rock with a kachina on it. She saved it when she went to Stillwater to work with the former owners of the magazine on cleaning up the financials and to learn their methods. She told me they were cleaning out the offices when she was there and she "just took it." Ha. So funny if you know Carole. This was back when we first bought the magazine in the fall of 1999 and the former owner's offices were in Stillwater.

The Rock That Stopped The Doors

I brought the treasured doorstop home and laid it on this broken wall tribute so it looks like Carole threw it through our front window and broke the glass. All in good humor, of course. Carole would never do that, but you have to agree that makes for a better story!

Yes, in the fall of 1999, Bob McCubbin and I flew to Guthrie, rented a car and drove to Stillwater to do this:

 "Oh, my Lord! What have we done?!" 

—Bob McCubbin after we signed the check, took this photo and started to drive away

The Razz Years Begets My True Calling

 July 25, 2025

   Still jammin' on the Cave Creek Canyons concept. Experimented with a lone cloud. Closer, but still not where I want to be. 

Daily Whip Out:

"Lone Cloud Over Elephant Butte"

Okay, let's get back to the uncomfortable stuff

Back To My Delusional Past

  After my syndicated cartoon strip debacle (1970-72) I turned my scattered attention towards doing an Arizona humor magazine.

Razz Re-donkulousness

with "Wonderful Russ"

   That adventure lasted four years and made zero money, but my partner and I—Dan "The Man" Harshberger—learned a couple more things, the hard way. First off, we thought Arizona needed a monthly humor magazine, not realizing the state already had a humor publication that came out every day—The Arizona Republic. Dang!

   I remember thinking, "I have always thought of myself as a diamond in the rough—I just wasn't expecting this much rough!" Also, intuitively, and by studying my heroes, I knew I had to go through a "delusional" phase where nobody believed in me, where I looked foolish and where I questioned myself daily, but I knew if I kept going I would eventually arrive at where I wanted to be. Imagine my shock and surprise when my delusional phase lasted thru the 60s, the 70s and half of the 80s. So much for the "overnight success" label.

   But enough wallowing in self-criticism and hatred. In a van Gogh kind of way, what am I doing today that builds on all of that failure?

   This morning I put this guy down on paper.

Daily Whip Out: "Bisti Badman"

Their first mistake was sending him to boarding school. Their second mistake was thinking he was slow.

"Atmosphere."

—Max Brand's one word take on my artwork.

The Long Road to A Dream House On The Desert

 July 24, 2025

   My father gave me a vivid dream. Like most father-son dreams, it was his dream and he passed it on down to me. Here it is in it's most primitive form.

Daily Whip Out:

"An Adobe Ranchito On The Desert"

   And, if you look close, you'll see a horseback vaquero on the trail home. You can just make him out in the twilight on the trail to that funky adobe on the ridgeline. This dream ironically dovetails with a project one of my neighbors is spearheading.

Daily Whip Out: "First Light On Cave Creek"

   Even back in the beginning of my career, I had this dream house on the desert as my goal. But I had a couple false starts on the downpayment of that dream.

BBB In '72

   I had this goal to have a syndicated comic strip so I could live anywhere I wanted and then I would find the perfect desert dwelling surrounded by elegant saguaros. The name of my comic strip was "Lippo & Paguna," which was a nostalgic look at my grandparent's farm in Iowa and Lippo was my grandmother's brother-in-law and I thought the name was perfect. I spent over 600 hours developing the strip while moonlighting as a draftsman at Tel Engineering and playing in a rock band (Smokey and eventually the Razz Band). Here is a closeup of the cartoons I am holding in the photo.

A page of "Lippo & Paguna" daily strips

   I sent it everywhere and I received over 240 rejection slips—which I tacked on my wall as a badge of honor—and when I finally visited The Des Moines Register Syndicate not long after the above picture was taken I asked them point blank why they didn't buy it and the guy shrugged and said, "Farm strips don't sell." Okay. So, the lesson was finally clear: I should have called them before I started and asked them whether they even wanted a farm strip. Damn.

   From that failure I gravitated to the idea that Arizona really needed a humor magazine. How could that fail? I wondered aloud if there was anybody crazy enough to help me produce that? And my roommate—from Kingman—said, "I'm that guy!"

"I don't think Bob Boze Bell is funny, period."

—Chiquita Rollins, Women Take Back The Night