Big night at the Phoenix Art Museum last night. Jana Bommersbach, Marshall Trimble and I revisited our Emmy award winning performances in the PBS documentary "Outrageous Arizona" for a packed house in Whiteman Hall.
I did discover a hidden gem in the Green Room, the little ante-room off the main stage where we waited to be introduced. On a blank cement wall hung this tall beauty:
Jim Ballanger told me it's the only wall in the museum big enough to hang it. I believe Jim said Maynard did for a department store in LA in the 20s.
After our talk we sold dozens of DVDs of the show and 28 back issues of our Arizona Centennial Celebration Issue. Lots of love all around, except for one person—a woman named Stephanie who came up to me at the signing table with a complaint. She was visibly upset and I'm still not sure what set her off, but she did say it was "unacceptable to bring politics into this setting." And I assume it was perhaps our OK Corral comments where Jana said "all politics in Arizona stem from the OK Corral." Then I made a quip about "Jan Brewer wagging her finger at Obama" and how that stems from the OK Corral. Anyway, she was inconsolable and it was one of those cases where nothing I could say would calm her down.
I had Theresa down at Tri Star Boze run the numbers on my books yesterday and this is her report:
Billy the Kid (1992) 15,735 books sold
Wyatt Earp (1993) 25,018 books sold
Doc Holliday (1994) 19,994 books sold
Bad Men (1999) 10,487 books sold
Classic Gunfights, Vol. I, II, III (2002-2006) 11,754 books sold
Total books sold: 82,988
Not too shabby for straight-up timeline bios. Gee I wonder what an east coast graphic novel writer thinks about this achievement?
"There would be nothing more boring than a graphic novel that was a straight timeline biography."
—Jim McCarthy, author of "Gabba Gabba Hey!" a graphic novel biography of the Ramones
