September 22, 2004
Special thanks to Victor Tinajero, Sherry Monihan and Allen Barra for tweaking and correcting my Tombstone movie scene. Allen had the actual shooting script, both Sherry and Victor did their corrections off the top of their heads. The power of this movie is amazing. One of my favorite questions at book signings is: “How many times have you seen the movie Tombstone?” And the answers range from “over 5,000 times” (this was Cowboy Dan Martin, he’s not kidding, and that number is at least two years old, so his total is probably even higher now. What is the new number Dan?) to “watch it every night before I go to bed” to “I just watched it before I came down to this signing.”

This morning we were meeting with Joel Klasky in the conference room and he was asking about the availability of back issues and I mentioned that one of our Doc Holliday issues recently sold for $100. As I said this I remembered we had a framed copy on the wall, behind me, and I turned and pointed at it. RG got a gleam in his eye and said, “Is that just a framed cover, or do you think there’s an issue in there?” I pulled it down, we peeked through the backing and lo and behold, we have another $100 to put in the bank! RG also took the frame for recycling. That guy wastes nothing.

At one I walked down to Dairy Queen for lunch ($4.77 cash for Ultimate burger and iced tea).

Neil Carmony caught a gaff in this issue’s Classic Gunfight. Got it changed. Had a good phone conversation with Dick Glassman in New York about newsstand distribution. He and Angelo Gandino are two old pros who together have some 60 years experience in the biz. I asked Dick about changing distributors and he had good advice—Don’t do it.

We’re also talking to a New York publishing house about a possible True West book, although there really isn’t any money in it for us (after all the production costs, etc.). So, do we go for it anyway? And try to capitalize on the exposure? Leverage it into a second book?

“Every one of us thinks we have what it takes to be successful. But when the opportunity arises, most people don’t have the courage to go for it.”
—Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks