August 24, 2007 Bonus Bonus Blog
And this just in from New Mexico:

Have You Driven A Ford Into The Ground Lately?
"Hey, are you really going to run a particularly unflattering black and white photo of a movie star nobody remembers on your cover and stick Russel Crowe down in the corner? Was there a big meeting on that design epiphany? Of course, I don't know nuthin' bout birthin' babies or cover design."
—Paul Hutton

Paul,
When I came back from Guatemala, we have nothing decent for the cover (nobody liked my Remington iPhone idea). We decided we wanted to go with Russell Crowe and 3:10 To Yuma, but we had totally limp publicity shots, very weak. We tried to use a Christian Bale image but he is virtually unrecognizeable (nobody in the office knew who he was—bad sign) , probably because he looks more like Alice Cooper on a bad hair day. The image they sent us of Crowe, is the one we use, but it can only run at the size it is on the cover (plus I really dislike the look, he's barely recognizeable as well). We cast around and isolate an image of Glenn Ford from a movie poster that has excellent reproduction quality (scanned at very high resolution). I drive the scan down to Dan's house (22 miles in 110 heat) and we put our heads together and try and figure out how to blend the two images to make it work.

On my way to Nicaragua I had a layover in Houston. At a Hudson Newsstand they had a five foot blow-up of the new Texas Monthly magazine with two cowboys from the King Ranch on the cover. It's black and white. Very sweet. I buy it and bring it back to Arizona. Dan and I look at that retro, black and white cover and determine to squeeze some of that retro-ness into our cover.

That's how we got there. Plus, the Russell Crowe image is muy so-so looking, don't you think? Hopefully, the big cowboy image of Ford's head and cowboy hat will capture most of the people we aim at, regardless of their ability to recognize him. So that's the birthin' babies version.

"I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a perparation for this hour and this trial."
—Winston Churchill