The Truth About the Bisbee Massacre Reward Money

May 31, 2013
   I really enjoy working with researchers who know their stuff, or, more accurately, know how to find the best evidence if they don't know. Doug Hocking knows the so-called Bisbee Massacre where five Clifton cowboys robbed the Goldwater-Castenada Store in December of 1883 and in the process shot and killed five people, including a pregnant woman.

    Who was firing from where and which way they rode is difficult to decipher but Doug gave me and Gus Walker great directions, showing where the stores were on Main Street and who fell where. Thanks to Doug we were able to track the narrative as good as can be expected this late in the game. With Doug's maps, photos and street diagrams Gus Walker was able to create his distinctive styled maps (3) for the robbery, the chase and the capture of the five outlaws (two of them fled deep into Mexico and were still captured), providing one of the best narratives of a very complicated gunfight. In fact, I have avoided doing it for the past decade because I knew it would be a bear to wrangle into four pages.



   Yesterday, Meghan Saar did her usual exemplary fact-checking (we went with Heath, instead of the oft used spelling of Heith) and by about four in the afternoon we had the entire thing shoe-horned in, but earlier in the day I sent Doug an email inquiry, asking what happened to all the reward money? A reported $15,000 was raised, much of it from the Copper Queen Mine and other mining companies and officials. Doug sent me an email informing me he would be going straight away to the county records to see if he could find anything.

Late yesterday afternoon, as Robert Ray was patiently waiting for the final proofs on the magazine to upload the first 72 pages to Kansas City in order to meet our printing deadline, I got back some pretty amazing, late breaking information from Doug:

From the Minutes of the County Board and the Book of Warrants:
  In December 1883, shortly after the Massacre the County Supervisors voted a reward of $2500 for arrest and conviction of the five to be issued at $500 for each of the five holdup men. (This argues strongly that there were only five robbers, not six).

On February 28, 1884, the board issued warrants (authorizing the treasurer to pay) the following:

 JC. Ward, Sheriff, $500 for Kelly

 JC. Ward, $500 for Wm. Delaney

 AG. Hill, Deputy, $500 for Howard

 AG. Hill, $500 for OW. Sample

 WA. Daniels, Deputy, $500 for Dan Dowd

   The warrants were redeemed almost a year later with $40 in interest by Wells Fargo and Ben Williams. It appears that they paid the sheriff and deputies and had to wait a year to get paid by the county.

   Whether this was a separate and distinct reward from the $15,000 Parsons described, I don’t know. Subscription began at the same time the county voted on the reward in December. Parsons collected against subscription on behalf of the county treasurer five days before the payouts were made, that is, right after the trial. $500 per head seems a lot more reasonable than $3000. Perhaps Parsons memory in 1901 was faulty. If they took $7500 in subscriptions and were able to collect $3200, that sounds reasonable.

 Anyway, it seems a barber in Deming, an ex-girlfriend in Clifton, and two Rurales in Sonora got stiffed.
—Doug Hocking

Doug is referring to the fact that handbills were widely circulated throughout the Southwest and Mexico describing the jewelry stolen and the names and descriptions of the outlaws and a substantial reward (Parsons says $15,000 was raised, which would be $3,000 for each outlaw, but as we can see from the records Doug was able to uncover, the actual amount was apparently $500 per outlaw). A barber in Deming, New Mexico recognized one of the outlaws when he came in for a shave and alerted the authorities. You'd think he would get a reward but evidently he did not. Another outlaw had a girfriend in Clifton who turned him in and she didn't get anything, and then the Rurales, or Mexican police, in Mexico recognized one of the outlaws in their jail, kept him on trumped up charges until a U.S. deputy could come down and return him, and they were stiffed as well.

This happened all over the west. Eight years before this robbery, the James Gang had rewards on their heads for $10,000 and the money actually paid out to Robert Ford was a fraction of that (I want to say $1,300). Pat Garrett never got his reward money for bagging Billy the Kid (However, he got subscription money raised by various New Mexico towns to thank him for his service, and it should be noted these amounts were much higher than the $500 reward offered by Lew Wallace). The Madelia Seven who bagged the Youngers at Hanska Slough got a couple hundred dollars (even though there were wanted posters declaring thousands of dollars in reward money for the capture, dead or alive, of the Northfield robbers). Yes, the railroads, banks and mining companies would offer huge rewards, then duck when it came time to pay.

   Nice to know, some things haven't changed.

   Anyway, to my knowledge, no one has ever published anything about the reward money paid out in the Bisbee Massacre and we have Doug to thank for digging it up. Good work, Mr. Hocking! The issue with this Classic Gunfight will be landing in your mailbox in about three weeks. Going to be a good one.

    Doug's book, Massacre at Point of Rocks, is available on Amazon, doughocking.com and from Smashwords.com in all eBook formats. He has stories in Outlaws and Lawmen and Dead or Alive from La Frontera and they are also available. He’ll be signing books at Atalanta Music and Books in Bisbee on the Fourth of July from 10 a.m. to 5. And he's doing two historical presentations, the first at 10 a.m. for children, at the Hank Hauser Museum in Sierra Vista and signing books afterward on Saturday, July 20.

   I'm also working with the legendary music historian Johnny D on a new True West Moment about the Arizona dudes who created guitar twang by utilizing an empty water tank.





Did another Sharpie drawing of Duane Eddy twang leading to more twangsters:



 
"The Three Twangsters"

I am speaking at a local high school graduation commencement tonight. Guess I should start writing what I'm going to say.

"The trouble is, you think you have time."
—Buddha

More In-dins On Indians

May 30, 2013
Utilizing one of the boards I saved from the trash yesterday, I whipped out this little study in my series "An In-din On An Indian In In-din Country." This is number three.

 
Daily Whipout #502, "An In-din On An Indian In In-din Country #3"

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Executing Trash And Other Lessons In Life

May 29, 2013
   Cleaned more in the garage this morning and bit the bullet and threw over a hundred semi-paintings, under-paintings and patina-paintings into a big, recycling trash can.



Wasn't easy. I've been storing some of these boards for years. I just kept thinking at some point I am going to grab them and finish in high style. Once I got going though, I really started getting ruthless. Even with that, though, I pulled out five for a momentary stay of execution. I thought they had just enough of a possibility that I should do something completely wild on them before tossing them for good.

Brought one of the five into the studio and whipped this out before going into work this morning:

 
Daily Whipout #501, "An In-din On An Indian In In-din Country #2"

Forced myself to finish quickly since I had a meeting at the office and needed to be there by nine. This caused me to be a little more loosey goosey than normal, and sometimes that is a good thing. Right, Dali?

"If it is humanly impossible to know whether your picture is finished, it will be almost as difficult for you to know when you must stop working on it."
—Salvador Dali, "Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship"

Not HBO, but H3O: Highway Heatwave Hitchers

May 28, 3013
  Spent the weekend working on a couple ideas and concepts, including this study of three phenoms:

Daily Whipout #500, "Heatwave Highway Hitcher"

Never mind she's on the wrong side of the road and facing away from oncoming traffic. Ha. This is a wild woman, rising out of the heatwaves of the desert, a living, breathing fantasy, immune to the laws of highway safety.

"The greatest enemy of a pictorial masterpiece is fantasy."
—Salvador Dali, "Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship"

Mickey Free And The Slag Heap of History

May 27, 2013
  Here's a guy who fought for our country but didn't get much credit for it.



Daily Whipout #497, "Mickey Free Rides Past The Slag Heap of History"

Found an underpainting in the garage of a Mexican flag sky with a skull and crossbones in the foreground. Got an inspiration to tie it all back to Mickey Free and so, brought it into the studio and added the white mule and Mickey Free and his U.S. flag serape. A fitting tribute on this Memorial Day for some of the fringe fighters who made this country great. Thanks Mick. You deserve more than you got.

"The past is a reflection of where we are now. The seeds of our dreams are there and some of them actually came true."
—BBB

Not-So-Gentle Comments

May 26, 2013
 Drove up to Prescott yesterday morning in very heavy traffic. I would have thought all the Memorial Day travelers had beat cheeks up the hill on Friday, but it was bumper to bumper all the way to Cordes Junction.

  Got to the plaza in Prescott at about 10:30 (I thought the event was at the Phippen Art Museum, only to find out it was sponsored by the Phippen on the plaza in Prescott so that added a half hour to the commute).

  This was my first glimpse at the finished bronze based on my painting "Not-So-Gentle Tamer" and I wasn't disappointed. The sucker weighs 1,000 pounds and is ten-feet-tall. They had to transport it from Bronzesmith in Prescott Valley by truck and then they had to utilize a crane to park it on the northwest corner of the plaza, making it the first thing you see as you approach the show.



All day people would round the corner, stare up and then gasp, "Wow!" and then, "Look at this honey!" Lots of picture taking and questions: "Is this going to be the permanent location?" being one of the most asked. No, the sculpture will be unveiled on July 27 at 10 in the morning at the Prescott Valley Civic Center in Prescott Valley and this is her first public showing as a full-scale bronze.

Here are the main people who made the statue happen:



At left, Ed  Reilly of Bronzesmith, who saw the potential for the statue and contacted me the day after the centennial celebration, February 14, 2012, where my painting of Tamer was auctioned off, to see if I was interested. I told him I was but that I had never done a sculpture and he said, "Don't worry, I'll find someone to help you." And did he ever: Deb Gessner transformed my idea into a wonderful presentation of my two grandmothers: Minnie and Guessie; and in the center is Lora Lee Nye who worked tirelessly to make the bronze happen. We needed to raise some $85,000 for the casting cost and as late as two months ago we were stuck about $27,000 short. It was Lora Lee who dug deep, called in a favor, pressed the flesh and got 'er done!

Along with the many, many compliments of the tall lady there were a few not-so-kind remarks. One older gentleman took one look at it and said, "That is disgusting!" before walking away in a huff. And some wildlife fans have taken offense at celebrating the killing of one of God's creatures. Live and let live, they say, but as so many women who came by commented, "Rattlesnakes are territorial and I could not allow them around my house and my kids." Amen, sister. That was the point of the whole deal, to honor the brave and tenacious women of Arizona who tamed the West AND the men.

I didn't know this, but as it turns out, there was some official resistance to the statue from a very unlikely source. While funding was in progress, a ranching woman on one of the Prescott art council boards took issue with the historical accuracy of the piece. "No Arizona woman ever did this," was one of her comments in a public meeting, along with, "She would have used a hoe, not a shovel." Okay, the first comment is ridiculous, but the second one has some merit. I remember my grandmother Guess using a trusty hoe, and I tried several studies utilizing a hoe but it just looked wimpy and wrong, and not heroic enough. It needed something bolder, a scepter, more regal like, yet humble, and so I ended up going with a shovel. But the kicker, is this: "The hat is historically incorrect," she said with some authority. Now THAT hurts! For me to spend my life getting the hats right from Billy the Kid to Custer to Geronimo, and then for someone to attack me on the historical accuracy of a woman's hat in the Old West period is, well, pretty damned ironic.

  I can absolutely defend the hat, of course. Ms. Criticizer claimed she would be wearing a bonnet. Okay, yes, the bonnet would be historically correct for the 1880s in Arizona, but even then, it is not the only head gear women wore. And I can show you dozens of photos of Arizona women wearing big hats, especially in the 1890s—1905 period, and this Tamer is celebrating the centennial which dates from 1912, so I think I'm quite safe in staking my provenance on this one.

Okay, I've said enough. Gee, I wonder what the Old Vaqueros have to say about all this?

"Mas vale callar que mucho hablar."
—Old Vaquero Saying (Silence is worth more than excessive talking)

Tall Women at The Phippen Art Museum

May 24, 2013
 I'm going to be appearing at the Phippen Art Museum outside Prescott tomorrow (Sat.) along with the finished, ten-foot-tall "Not-So-Gentle Tamer" sculpture. Very exciting. Haven't seen the finished version yet. I'll be there from ten to two, signing prints and books and selling DVDs of "Outrageous Arizona" so if you're up in the cool country tomorrow, drop in and see how the beauty turned out.



"Gina Lollobrigida wasn't built in a day."
—Jimmy Durante

Dali And The Sleep Derived Sketches of A Sweet Hitch hiker

May 24, 2013
Thanks to Sir Eric Wolfgang, I'm enjoying Dali's crazy, amazing book, "50 Secrets of Magic Craftmanship". Last night, before retiring, I read this:

"Secret Number 3 is that in undertaking an important pictorial work which you are anxious to bring to a successful completion and on which your heart is particularly set, you must before anything else begin it by sleeping as deeply, as soundly as it is possible for you to do."

So I retired early, slept soundly, woke up at 5:30, grabbed my sketchbook and whipped this out:



Full disclosure, the dude at bottom was illustrated the night before and is a study emulating 1960s clip art (the style of facial rendering popular at the time). Somewhat surreal, to me, although they kind of go together like the music in Django Unchained vs. the style and tone of the movie (i.e. they do and they don't. It's either incongruous to the point of absurdity, or, it's rather inspired).

Once the juices were flowing in this direction I immediately went out to the studio to pursue the Heatwave Hitch Hiker:



And, after feeding the chickens and having breakfast I made another run at it her:



This got me to thinking about all the hitch hikers I have picked up and how many, actually approached this level of attractiveness. In all honesty, I have picked up a couple young ladies who were fetching and one in particular who was loaded and made it clear she was available for extra curricular activities. I was on my way to pick up my girlfriend at the time, and pretended not to get her message, although I did kick myself later in a kind of Well-that's-not-going-to-happen-ever-again kind of way. And it didn't.

The irony is, today, if I saw someone like this on the road I would never stop. It just seems too much like a come on to get robbed or worse, but then this is a 66-year-old guy talking.

Either way, the fetching hitch hiker is an American icon. Just the pose of the cocked hip with the thumb out on a lonely road is in our DNA as a people. Or, certainly tattooed on the backside of the American male retina.

"Where ya' headed?"
—The first words every hitch hiker hears when a vehicle stops to pick them up

Bent Saguaros, And Damn Godd Advice From Dali

May 23, 2013
I am always on the lookout for good art models and I met this young, well-dressed reenactor at Buck Montgomery's Wild West Show in Glendale a while back. I thought he had a great look and it's so rare to find a young guy who is into it. Got his name and number, but lost it. Anybody know this young, authentic looking man?





Believe it or not, one of the attractions to moving to Cave Creek back in 1986 was the copious amounts of saguaros in the area. We are at 2,200 feet and that seems to be the elevation that the big sentinels agree with the most (not surprisingly, Tucson is at the same elevation). Anyway, our house looks down into Cave Creek, and down in the bottoms are very big saguaros, some of which have dramatically bent arms. I sketched this big, fifty footer not long after we moved out here:





You don't see these specimens on postcards, probably because they aren't the classic shape, but I find them fascinating and beautiful in their own right. I have been told by oldtime Creekers that the reason for the bent arms is because the creek bottom holds down the cold air in winter and the saguaros get frostbite and instead of growing straight up, they twist in agony to survive. I'm checking with a botanist to see if this is true.

Working on the Bisbee Massacre for the next issue of True West and amazingly, no photos of the five (some say six) perpetrators have surfaced. It was a celebrated case and I can't believe C.S. Fly didn't take their photos during their incarceration in Tombstone. No photos of their hanging either, which is just quite odd. Of course, the lynching of John Heith is one of the most reprinted photos in Western history, but why the others were not captured on film is a real mystery to me.





And, also working on The 66 Kid:





Sir Wolfgang, of this site, sent me a great book on Salvador Dali. I had never really been a fan of his art, but the book, "50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship" is absolutely hilarious AND full of great artistic advice:

"The movement of your stipple brushes must be as mechanical and indifferent as you human organism will allow. And finally, the movement of the fan-shaped badger brush is the most rapid of all—so rapid that it cannot even be seen, exactly like the wings of the hummingbird."

And, then, there's this little nugget of wisdom: "It is undeniable that every good painter drools."

He's serious!

"The two most fortunate things that can happen to a painter are, first to be Spanish, and, second, to be named Dali. Those two fortunate things have happened to me."
—Salvador Dali



"

Drawings That Cause Kidnappings

May 22, 2013
  I was cleaning again in the garage this morning (it's recycling pickup day on Wednesday) and found a drawing that got me in a little trouble. In the mid-eighties when I worked for New Times, the publisher, Jim Larkin, asked me to illustrate a series of promos that paid off the title "We Settle The Arguments". This was to promote their annual Best of Phoenix issue, a cash cow to this day. I had the usual cowboy and Indians going at it, but to poke fun at local politics I did a drawing of Phoenix mayoral candidates Terry Goddard and Margaret Hance trying to choke each other.



When the billboards went up a local feminist group Women Take Back The Night took issue with the drawing, claiming Terry had a "superior choke hold" on Margaret and therefore the illustration was sexist and promoted violence against women. The Women then proceeded to kidnap truckloads of New Times papers by following the delivery trucks and absconding with the stacks of papers as soon as the delivery drivers left. The Women then called New Times and threatened to destroy the papers unless I was fired. New Times did eventually fire me but not for this.

Another pen and ink I found in the garage was this little gem: "Barricade Wolf." This was originally for a sequence in a Honkytonk Sue story, "The Man Canyon" but I'm thinking of repurposing it for The 66 Kid.

 

"I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."
—Le Corbusler

Directions to Mattie Earp's Grave

May 21, 2013
  With the dedication of the new fence around the graveyard where Wyatt Earp's second wife is buried, we have been getting quite a few calls from interested subscribers who want to find the cemetery, just outside Superior, Arizona. We decided to have The Mapinator draw up a good map for you all to utilize (when you're driving out there blind it ain't fun). So, without further ado, here's Gus Walker's map with directions:







When you come from the Valley, going east into Superior, you will see the Welcome to Superior sign, on the right. At that point, look left and you will see Silver King Mine Rd. Take it north. The rest is dirt roads and follow the turns. It's basically two lefts and then you drive across a long mesa (with multiple roads or ruts really) but keep going southwest and you will eventually see the fence and dedication sign.



At the risk of inviting "Hey-Dig-Me!" criticism, here is another of the Bryan Black photos he took of me last week for a feature they are going to run in ImageAZ magazine. The Irish kid is quite good.





This was taken next door at Janey's which is a small cafe and wine bar that also features live music.

I'm working on a color palette for The 66 Kid that will emulate the old linen, hand-colored postcards of the 1940s and early 50s, like this classic card:


I just love this effect. It makes me warm inside just to look at it. I've sent a couple samples down to one of the best colorists in the comics biz, Brett Smith, to see if he can give me this effect. Stay tuned. Hope to have something to show by tomorrow, but you know what they say about that:

"Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week."
—Old Vaquero Saying

More In-dins On Indians, Cowboy Pickups & Military Channel Gunfighters

May 20, 2013
   Spent the morning out at Pioneer Living History Museum taping a talking head deal for a new series the Military Channel is producing on Gunfighters of the Wild West.

  This morning I whipped out a cowboy pickup cruising down a desert highway at night, with an Indian motorcycle bearing down:



And here's another view of the Hualapai Rider:

 
Daily Whipout #495, "An In-din On An Indian In In-din Country

"I'm American. More is more!"
—Kate Upton when questioned on her motivation and ambitions

Cowboy Pickups, Yarnell Hill & Highway Heatwaves

May 19, 2013
  I've been studying old pickups driving down the road with a makeshift horse hauler rack on the back for a scene in The 66 Kid. Found some good reference in a certain old movie. It was filmed in Sedona, starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda. Can you name it?



Had a wonderful Sunday drive up Yarnell Hill this morning. Stopped at the Ranch House Cafe for a bite in Yarnell, then on to the Peeple's Valley School House for a Wild West talk. Full house, sold some books met some down home folks (rancher John Hays, a Yarnell descendent, sculptor Cynthia Rigden, Maynard Dixon collector Hermann Dixon) and on the way home witnessed some great highway heat waves on the horizon. Check it out.

"


"If you don't believe in magic, you'll never find any."
—Old Vaquero Saying

A BBB History Talk This Weekend

May 19, 2013
   Doing a True West history talk this Sunday (19th) at the little white school house in Peeples Valley (southwest of Prescott). Starts a 1 p.m. $15 at the door. Sponsored by the Peeples Valley-Yarnell Historical Society.

 

"About half of what I'm about to tell you is true. It's your job to figure out which half."
—BBB

Gina Lolabrigida vs. Lola Ginabrigida

May 17, 2013
   I found out last week I have ADD and OCD. Everything has to be perfect, just not for very long. Now it turns out I evidently have another affliction, as it relates to yesterday's blog post:

"You mean Gina Lolabrigida, don't you?"
—CJW

  Yes, of course, it's Gina Lolabrigida, not Lola Ginabrigida, the Italian actress from the 1950s with the big talents. Dang! Now it looks like I have Lexias-Dick: rather than everything coming out wrong, like with dyslexia, with Lexias-Dick, everything goes in wrong. Here's a sketch of Lola Ginabrigida I'm working on:





Okay, that came out wrong.

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
—James Joyce

An In-din On An Indian In In-din Country

May 16, 2013
   When I do my six drawings in the morning I just let it fly and whatever comes into my mind while I'm noodling, I put down on the page. First, I was noodling a fifties bullet bra babe and that made me think of Lola Ginabrigida, then I thought of Lola Montez and that led me to Zona Montez (and suprisingly not to Chris Montez, the singer of the fifties classic "Let's Dance"):



The highway, at right is from a photo I took out at my father's last house in So Hi Estates at the edge of Golden Valley. At dusk I hiked up to some rocks south of his house and took a photo of a car speeding towards Highway 93 on a dirt road. I like the design and angles, which I plan on exploiting in a painting.

Fellow illustrator Gary Zaboly posts some pretty amazing photos on Facebook. Yesterday he posted a photo from about 1905-08 of an Indian in full head-dress astride an Indian motorcycle. This just tickled me to no end and I immediately saw it as a sequence I want to illustrate:



An In-din on an Indian Motorcycle in In-din Country (I'm using the Hualapai pronunciation of Indian, which they say as In-din, thus appropriating the totally insulting and wrong-headed term they have been saddled with since Columbus, and making it their own).




That is just zany stuff.

"A redneck told me to go home, so I put a teepee in his backyard."
—Navajo joke

Mug Shots, Mocajete and Beating A Dead Horse

May 15, 2013
I was looking for an image and ran across a slew of mug shots I have completed over the years, way more than I realized.



And more mug shots:





and then there's this:



This is The Apache Kid, of course at Alcatraz.





In the gold rush days of California, lawmen would carry photographs of various outlaws and bad men in their saddlebags and they would write descriptions right on the images, like this. Crazy.



And finally, here's a dude I call Mr. Mocajete:





This is ironic because when Ken Amorosano comes into the office he often exclaims, "Mocajete!" which is a non-sequiter greeting based on a dish my son Tomas likes at a certain Mexican food restaurant down in central Phoenix (when Ken first moved here we treated him to a mocajete lunch and he never forgot it). Come to find out "mocajete" also means "grinding it out," so it has another meaning that applies to publishing magazines: "Let's grind it out."

"Find a good horse and beat it to death."
—Ernie Kovac's metaphorical advice on how to succeed in show biz

Route 66 and La Gata

May 14, 2013
   Still on the march to read about and see every road picture I can get my hands on. Actually watched "Harry & Tonto" where-in a 55-year-old Art Carney plays 75. Had its moments, but not my cup of tea.

   Watched Two-Lane Blacktop a while back and enjoyed them being on the actual road (as opposed to filming in the San Fernando Valley and faking everything). Here are James Taylor (the Driver) and Dennis Wilson (the Mechanic) actually driving up through Perfume Pass, southwest of Kingman:





We called it Perfume Pass because of the sewer ponds (the green at bottom of frame) gave off a distinct aroma when you drove by there on the way to Yucca. Here's the POV with Ms. Bird eyeballing her real interest in the Driver (check out James' hair!):



And, just to illustrate the worldwide appeal of the road, here's a popular music magazine in Spain which I picked up at the train station in Sevilla last month:




This past weekend I watched Easy Rider and was reminded that in the old days, the pavement on Route 66 was actually a red hue in parts. I believe this is Long Valley, just west of Seligman, from the movie:



Jim Hinkley, my go to guy on all things Route 66, tells me they used to use volcanic ash from a local source, to put in the blacktop mix. And Dan the Man Harshberber, who attended NAU in Flag, tells me the Highway Department used to put the red ash on the highways when it snowed, instead of salt. Hmmmm. Not sure where the actual quarry was. Do you know?

Meanwhile, still noodling character studies for the carkid:





And, speaking of dark and dangerous, here's La Gata, as modeled by Jeanne Sedello:




Did this in the early nineties, but it still has some potential, no?

"I love you more than coffee, but please don't make me prove it."
—Old Vaquero Saying

All Meat And No Potatoes

May 13, 2013
   After a speech in Phoenix on Friday, I met up with radio legend Jeanne Sedello at her new home below Camelback and 49th Street. Had some wine sitting in her new kitchen while an electrician worked around us and we solved some life and revisited some crazy radio times together on KSLX and Young Buck. Jeanner, as we call her, is still cut (defined muscles) and was the model for a cartoon character I created called La Gata. Revisited some of those images this weekend (can you spot her?)"



She's the brooding Mexican, above. Ha. Also noodled some more ideas about the 66 Kid and the women he meets:





Which triggered some sordid memories of my own car sparking days:



"She's all meat and no potatoes."
—Old Vaquero Saying

How to Be A Newsstand Hero

May 13, 2013
   As you probably know, we have a rough time on the newsstands of America because we are a small player in a very large corporate world. Big magazine publishers, like Hearst, with over a hundred titles, can command shelf space and push out little guys. That's why it's so important to us to have such faithful readers like Nicholas Narog.

"After several months of complaining—the Barnes and Noble in the Mall of America now carries a certain magazine."
—Nicholas Narog



Be like Nick. Complain and cajole your local newsstand until they get with the program (we've heard B&N has a computer program that clicks in if there are three requests for a title).

Thanks. Go get'em.

"The squeaky wheel gets the oil."
—Old Vaquero Saying

A U.S. Marshal T-shirt Design

May 10, 2013
   Our art director, Dan The Man Harshberger, came up with this new T-shirt design based on our recent cover:

What do you think? Would you buy it?

Angie, Oh Angie

May 10, 2013
   Had a pretty cowgirl come visit me two days ago.



Nancy Sheppard is a longtime rodeo roper and performer. (this is a publicity photo of her back in the day) She is doing a rodeo cook book and asked me for my grandmother Guessie's pinto bean recipe. Nancy brought me Choc Hamilton's obit in the December, 2012 issue of Pro Rodeo Sports News, which I'm sending on to my cousin Billy (Choc's son).



Meanwhile, someone on Facebook posted an amazing photo of Angie Dickinson on the set of Rio Bravo and I was kind of stunned at how racy the outfit was for the times.





So, naturally I had to Google Angie Dickinson and found a ton of photos of her in short shorts. She certainly was a stunning woman. I actually met her in Ridgway, Colorado about six or seven years ago during the first (and only) True Grit Days. We had a pre-party in the newly rennovated Beaumont Hotel in Ouray and there she was, in her seventies, mingling with the locals in the lobby and still as sexy as can be. On Saturday night, when we came back from the screening of True Grit in the park at Ridgway (where the hanging took place in the movie), I was walking to the front door when Angie pulled up with her driver and she leaned forward, like a high school girl, and waved to me, in the most flirtatious way.

"Vanish vanity, and there you are."
—Awa Kenzo