Still cleaning in the garage, making room for the palette of hard bound books. Been finding a couple little gems in the piles of goo, like this clean, little drawing, of the Kid:
Billy Buckaroo
This is from an old photograph that Jim Earle found (and used on one of his books about the Kid) and it does have a cocky resemblance to the Kid. Unfortunately, the photo has a Baltimore studio imprint so it's somewhat unlikely that it's the real Willie Bonney, but this is how we want him to look, plus the hat, which I've added, is a wide brimmed Chihuahua sugarloaf, which Garrett claimed he wore.
Meanwhile, over the years I have commissioned various artists to come up with lettering for T-shirts and book titles and I believe this is a Bob Steinhilber number:
And just for grins here's the new CDV of the Kid, flopped to represent how he really looked.
The new Billy the Kid CDV that Brian Lebel will auction off later this month.
And also, just for grins, here is the photograph I bought at the Longhorn Ranch Museum in New Mexico that set off the storm to find the truth about the lad:
An Authentic Photo of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett signed! And totally fake.
"On the village street stands a tall figure in a red cloak flung over a sheepskin vest that is black with grime; a lavender turban with tassels and once colorful boots deck the extremities of this bandit, who hails me in a wolfish, leering way."
—Peter Mathiessen, The Snow Leopard
