January 21, 2003
Went into office and got several items taken care of. Did sell-thru stats on each issue going back two years. Going to have a cover seminar tomorrow in staff meeting. Biggest selling issue has been Wyatt Earp (Feb., 2001) and lowest selling issue was Mattie Silks (January, 2001). Somewhat ironic that both issues were consecutive. The best and the worst side by side. Hmmmm. I’m going to lay out all the issues on the conference table with the sell-thru stats posted on each cover, then take the losers and put them on the left hand side, and the winners on the right. Then throw it out to the staff: “What are our readers trying to tell us?” Should be an interesting discussion.

Came home at ten. Looks like rain. Bailed into Buckshot Roberts spraying lead. Finished at 12:06. Need to keep jamming. Finished the overview of Blazers’ Mill at 12:53.

Went back to office at one. Good talk with Bob Brink regarding sales and where we need to be this year. He has big plans and a good vision. He’s very focussed. I want to be him when I grow up. Got Gus lined out on Classic Gunfights.

Came back home at two. Whipped out a portrait of Frank and George Coe (also for Classic Gunfights, April). Then shifted gears and worked on an illustration for an article about a guy who was stripped naked, his throat cut and he was thrown in a river along with everyone else in his party (happened in early Texas, of course). Incredibly, he lived, hid in a crevice on the river bank until the Mexican bandidos who did the murdering left. Then he walked, stark naked, to civilization. Tough one to illustrate, but I came up with the idea to show him in that crevice with the green water of the river running up to his chin. He has a look of horror on his face as he sees a set of toes coming in from the right, the water is a pink hue flowing out and downriver from his neck wound (which is below the water). It’s a clever concept but I don’t know if it works or not (I’m too close to it). We’ll soon see. Issue hits subscribers in about four weeks (if you buy it off the newsstand you'll have to wait seven weeks). Worked until about nine. Want to get up early and whip out two other illustrations for this issue.

"In the long run...we only hit what we aim at."
—Henry David Thoreau