December 10, 2007 Bonus Blog
Everyone from True West who went to Vegas is fried, but we have an issue going out the door on Wednesday, so here we are, right back at it.

When I left last Thursday I was really hanging out on images for the next Classic Gunfight between Frank and Gladys Hamer and Gee McMeans in Sweetwater, Texas. For some reason I haven't been able to locate any photos of Sweetwater in 1917, nor a suitable image of Gladys Hamer.

This morning I finally got in touch with a Hamer relative. I won't mention his name because, he has a photo of Gladys in a wedding picture taken of her and her first husband, who she later shot dead over a child custody conflict. She was 14 when she married him. In fact, that killing led almost directly to the shootout for this issue. The photo is "owned" by someone else, and my contact understandably didn't want to betray that trust, so I went home for lunch and started a fire in the studio stove and sat down to do a painting of the couple, based on the photograph.

The name of my painting is:

Don't Mess With A Teenaged, Pistol Packin' Mama From Texas


After the shooting death of her first husband she fell in love with Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Photos of the daring lawman show a cocky young kid with a permanent smirk. Here's my scratchboard take on him, also based on a photograph:



It's been raining again, and as I came back to work at five, the washes were running. I'm a little concerned about getting home but wanted to come in and scan the artwork, so we can hit the ground running in the morning.

"I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this."
—Emo Philips