I found this random photo online and I'm fascinated by the pure cheesiness of it all. Very profound in a Lil' Abner meets Hugh Hefner kind of way.
Moonshine Mama
And speaking of classic comic strips I loved as a kid:
A Hard Shot Indeed
Alex Raymond rocks!
Another cartooning hero of mine is the late, great Hal Empie of Duncan, Arizona fame.
Hal and Louise Empie, 1939
Hal actually ran a drugstore in Duncan, Arizona when my mother went to school there.
Empie Drugs in beautiful downtown
Duncan, Arizona.
On the side Hal drew and sold his "Way Out West" postcards. This is a good example:
Hal did many cartoon postcards featuring various Southwestern locales including my hometown of Kingman.
Hal Empie is considered one of the four legends who came out of Duncan, Arizona. The others are Sandra Day O'Connor, Geronimo and Ted DeGrazia. Quite an eclectic list for such a small town.
Hal's daughter, Ann, has just published a book of his "Way Out West" cartoons and it's a must have if you love Arizona like I do.
As an added bonus, I am proposing a mini-Going Home to Duncan Tour, and I'm trying to corral Alan Day and Scott O'Connor (Sandra Day's brother and son), Ann Empie Groves (Hal Empie's daughter), myself with my Geronimo book (my grandparents had a ranch near Duncan) and a musical guest. We will sell books and dance and raise hell in our old stomping grounds. If I can get all the above yahoos in the same place at the same time, you will be invited and we will have this ridiculous—but amazing—Going Home to Duncan, with an old-school-barn-dance in April. Will it make money? Absolutely not. Do I care? No. I think it will be a hoot-and-a-half.
Stay tuned.
"The word Queue is very ironic. It's just a 'Q' with a bunch of silent letters waiting in a line."
—Old Vaquero Saying
Looks like Reg Manning picked up some influences from Empie.
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