February 20, 2008 Bonus Bonus Blog Post
Working late tonight in order to get our monster Sixth Annual Travel Issue out the door tomorrow. I took food orders from Robert Ray, Abby Pearson and Meghan Saar, then drove up to The Bad Donkey in Carefree and got them dinner ($31.46, includes tip, TW account). Looks like we'll be here for another hour (it's a little after seven now).

Finally finished the Classic Gunfight for the Steins Pass Blast this afternoon around four. Really a complicated puppy. John Boessenecker sent me a great photo of Eugene Thacker, one of the express guards who fought off the Black Jack Ketchum Gang. Arrived this morning. Thacker was only nineteen at the time of the robbery. Pretty amazing for a kid to experience that kind of shootout so young. His father was the head detective for Wells Fargo, so he evidently came by it naturally. The sand, that is.

Well, finished all my work, so might as well answer some mail:

On Feb 19, 2008, at 5:02 PM, Bill Dunn wrote:
"Who is the gal in sketches 5780 through 5787? You do such a wonderful job on the eyes and lips."
—Bill Dunn

Bill,
That is none other than Tyra Banks, from the cover of Entertainment Weekly. I was struck by her facial structure as it relates to our character Beauty in the Mickey Free story. I wanted to see if I could apply some of her 21st Century sexiness to the nineteenth century. I think I can.
—BBB

Ever sat around and wondered what bandmate Mike Torres and his pretty wife looked like 30 years ago? Me too. Here we go:



Mike and Lee have been married for 29 years and been together for 30. He met her downstairs at Mr. Lucky's (Country upstairs, Rock downstairs) in Phoenix (or is that Glendale?). When she walked down the stairs and he saw her, Mike told a friend, "That's the girl I'm going to marry." I told Mike I have a similar story. I met my first wife at Mr. Lucky's as well, although I wasn't as lucky (and if you asked her, she wasn't either).

"Life is for most of us a continuous process of getting used to things we hadn't expected."
—Martha Lupton