Tuesday, November 30, 2021

EL Ojo Loco And Bedtime for Uno

 November 30, 2021

   I don't know about you, but my dog likes a good story before he retires. He absolutely loves this new book co-written by my friend Jeff Mariotte. I call this photo. . .

Bedtime for Uno

The new book is "Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta" by Jeffrey J. Mariotte and Peter Murrieta. Fun reading. I highly recommend it.

  I love so many things in this photo and, frankly, that's why they are near my desk. At far left, is a photo of my parents on their wedding day in 1945 (they were married in Saint John's Methodist Church in Kingman which is the exact same location of Clark Gable's marriage to Carole Lombard in 1939). Next to the photo of my parents, is a coin jar half-full of silver dollars which Criag Schepp used to pay for a BBB painting with. Behind the jar is the temporary grave marker for the "Guest" children, which Sadie Pearl (Guess) Duncan gifted me when we replaced that temporary grave marker with an actual gravestone in 1991. The print is of a Mississippi river boat, The Helena, out of Harper's Weekly. Above the jar is an original BBB scratchboard of Wyatt Earp behind bars, and above that are the legs of Zapata and his horse, by Diego Rivera from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. My reference library, behind me, includes my cartoon heroes on the top shelf (Dick Tracy, M.C. Escher and Steve Canyon, among others), the second shelf contains more eclectic stuff (R. Crumb Sketchbook, Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth's Tarzan), and the lower two shelves are dedicated to books on quotes, slang and dictionaries.


Daily Whip Out:

"In The Valley of Dust Devils"


Daily Whip Out:

"El Ojo de Loco, He Rode Straight Out

of A Dust Devil"


   And here are some roughs for a cover of Ojo de Loco. Or, should that be El Ojo Loco? Crazy Eye?


Daily Whip Out: "Free Roughs"


"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."

—Henry Ford

Sunday, November 28, 2021

That Nattering Nabob Voice of Negativity Inside My Head

 November 28, 2021

   I have this negative voice in my head which at times can be completely immobilizing. Here are a few things my voice says to me:


And you call yourself an artist? Ha!

• You can't run a successful magazine.

• You have zero influence on anything or anybody.

• When someone Googles "Old Fool" your picture should be there.

• Most people are laughing at you, not with you. 

• You are a pathetic, show-off loser, from Kingman and when you die you'll be lucky if you are even remembered as the local, untalented, version of Soupy Sales.


My Negative Nay-Bob

   I could go on, but I won't because it's too damned embarrassing. Plus, if you think the examples, above, are vicious, you don't even know what "nattering nabobs of negativity" means.


"The press are nattering nabobs of negativity."

—Spiro T. Agnew 


   Turns out our negative voice is stronger than our positive voice because of survival mechanisms out on the Plains of Serengeti. The negative voice kept us alive. "Don't eat that. What are you thinking?!"

 A Daughter's Fine Gift 

   My daughter Deena, recently gifted me "The 6 Minute Diary" and the first part of the diary is an impressive collection of quotes and information about why it's so important to be grateful in a daily, systemic way.

   There are several studies cited in the book that are eye opening, but the one with the 180 nuns especially stands out for me. When these particular nuns entered the convent they were asked to write out a short (two or three page) autobiography of their life so far, and what they thought their lives would bring them in the future. This was in the 1930s and 1940s and they were  22-years-old, on average. Based on their negative and positive comments they were divided into four groups from the most negative to the most positive. The most incredible aspect of the study is that these subjects didn't smoke, they didn't drink alcohol, they didn't have sex, or kids, and they lived in the same building.

   Here are the amazing findings: the 45 most positive nuns lived an average of 10 years longer than the most negative. At the age of 85, more than 90% of the happiest nuns were still alive!  

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:
"Two Negative Nabobs"

   Wow! The message is clear. Be positive. Be thankful, be grateful. I will do the diary every day. And where can I look for inspiration?

Every day is Christmas Day to a dog.

Uno relishes the wind on his nose.


   Also, we all need to stop judging our insides by the outside of others. Some people "appear" to be in control of their lives, but inside they are just as haunted and cursed as we all are. 

   Athough it's fiction, here is a good example of someone heroic, but tortured inside, Captain Call:

"Sitting on the low bluff, watching the moon climb the dark sky, he felt the old sadness again. He felt, almost, that he didn’t belong with the very men he was leading, and that he ought to just leave: ride west, let the herd go, let Montana go, be done with the whole business of leading men. It was peculiar to seem so infallible in their eyes and yet feel so empty and sad when he thought of himself."

—Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

Saturday, November 27, 2021

Yaqui Legends Never Told

November 27, 2021

The Yaqui in northern Sinaloa have a legend about a one-eyed captivo who rode out of a dust devil fully formed. All the men feared him but the women could not resist his glowing eye.

Daily Whip Out:

"The Legend of Mickey Free"

(The Uncut Version)


   There is also another old Yaqui legend that ten leagues north of Cold Water (Agua Fria) and three-and-a-half fathoms below the Seven Sisters there is a cactus pointing towards a cave.


   If someone finds that cactus and goes into the cave, that person will be blessed with a ridiculously, large imagination.

A Dying Saguaro Points The Way

    So, don't go into that cave and feel the energy, because the guy who owns the trees behind the cactus will shoot you on sight if you set foot on his property. But you can still stoke your imagination by looking at these two photos, then call the Desert Land Trust and make a donation before you die. Don't tell them I sent you.

"History knocks at a thousand gates at every moment, and the gatekeeper is chance. We shout into the mist for this one or that one to be opened for us, but through every gate are a thousand more. We need wit and courage to make our way while our way is making us." 
—Alexander Herzen

Friday, November 26, 2021

My Fave Billy the Kid Artworks Are Up And Ready to Find New Homes

 November 26, 2021

   Here's a heads up for any of you who want an original BBB Billy the Kid painting or illustration for your very own. Many of these pieces of art I have had in my home and studio for the past thirty-plus years, and now it's time for them to find new homes where someone else can enjoy them.



   If those big Kid paintings are too rich for your blood, I've also included smaller pieces and have kept the prices low, just for you.



   Here's where to go to see the set up:


BBB Billy the Kid Art Sale


And here's the link to see the artwork and the pricing.


Billy Artwork Going Fast


You need to move your fanny, because these historically accurate paintings are going to go fast.


"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."

—Pablo Picasso




ddd

Thursday, November 25, 2021

The Beautiful Guess Girls Remembered & Thomas McGuane Nails My Immaturity

 November 25, 2021

   Today marks my 74th Thanksgiving on the planet. I don't remember much about the first six or seven but I do have some scattered, specific memories of some of them. I fondly remember Thanksgiving at my Aunt Doris's stately home in Osage, Iowa where I graduated from the kiddie table to the adult table. I must have been 22 or 23 years old at the time. No, that's just a joke, the kind my grandpa, Carl Bell, was fond of making. Of course, I remember many Thanksgivings at Grandma Guessie's house in Kingman when the house was full of cowboys and their feisty women (my mother was one of five beautiful sisters and most everyone in Mohave County knew them as the Guess Girls). They have all since passed, but the memory of their persistence, their beauty and their humor lives on.

My mother, Bobbie Guess, on horseback

1939, Hilltop (outside Kingman), Arizona,

when she was a senior in high school

   And you wondered where I got my taste in hats.

   Today I am thankful for many things, mostly my family and their familes, and, of course, all my friends who have put up with me longer than I would have put up with them if they acted like me.


The Cold Eyes of A Cartoonist


    I know. I have never really grown up. I wonder what the guy who co-wrote "The Missouri Breaks" has to say about that?


"In real psychological terms, your life is half over at ten."

—Thomas McGuane, "Not Here You Don't"

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

The Stance Remains The Same And The Key to Happiness

 November 24, 2021

   I received an interview request this week to talk about a sculptor named Lawrence Tenny Stevens, and I was somewhat embarrassed to admit I had never heard of him before. So, of course, I Googled him and found some pretty interesting bio info. He created what became known as "Cowboy High Style," and he lived and worked in Tempe, Arizona from the fifties until his death in 1972, at age 76. All this according to Edward Lebow, who wrote an excellent piece on Stevens in my old newspaper, the Phoenix New Times, in 1996. Wow! This makes it doubly embarrassing because he worked basically in my back yard!

   I also found this interesting photo of him.

Lawrence Tenny Stevens
High In The Rockies 

   Hmmm, where have I seen this pose before?

He's right-handed and I'm left-handed.
Otherwise, the stance remains the same.


 Anyway, yesterday I went for a walk on our burnt land and was sad to see this.

Burnt but still standing.

   This is on the north end of our property. Two of our saguaros have fallen and this one is pretty badly burned, so how long it lasts, I don't know, but I'll take it. I feel the same way about these two youngsters.

Young Love Still Standing

   We've been through some stuff, but we're still standing and still laughing. Forty-two years and counting.

So What Is The Recipe?

   Someone to love, something to do, something to hope for. I've never heard it put more succinctly. If you have these three things, ask for no other blessing. And conversely:


"It is not the happy people who are grateful. It is the grateful people who are happy."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Monday, November 22, 2021

An A- O.K. Day!

 November 22, 2021

   Funny what a hunch can produce.

   I didn't see any ads or notices about the event in Tombstone. I just knew I had to be there, in the corral, for the centennial of the Earp-Clanton gunfight on October 26, 1981. So, on a hunch, I simply got in my Ford F-150, dropped my daughter off at grandma's house in Tucson, drove to Tombstone and went straight to the O.K. Corral.      Turns out, I wasn't alone. So many of the people I met that day had a profound influence on my future. To say the event changed my life is almost an understatement.

First shot from my 8mm film

on October 26, 1981

   Here is just a partial list of the people who had the same hunch as me; Harold Love, Jeff Morey, Richard Ignarski, John Bianchi, Ben Traywick, Bob McCubbin and Phil Spangenberger. Turns out they each had the same love for the same history as I did.

Phil Spangenberger in red shirt

at the O.K. Corral centennial


Ben Traywick as Wyatt Earp, second from left.



Richard Ignarki in the corral



Harold Love, the owner of the O.K. Corral site

   Fast forward: in 1999, Bob McCubbin and I made the decision to buy True West magazine over breakfast in the O.K. Cafe (across the street from the O.K. Corral). Richard Ignarski opened the Gunfighter Museum in Tombstone, Jeff Morey helped me reconstruct a step by step analysis of the fight which was showcased in my Doc Holliday book, John Bianchi, the owner of Frontier Gunleather became one of our biggest supporters in the magazine and Phil Spangenberger became our gun editor in 2003. Phil has written almost 200 columns and features for True West, since then. We are proud to name our friend, Phil Spangenberger as the recipient of our True Westerner Award for 2022. Details to follow.

   In the nineties, the historians and buffs I met expanded to include even more guys who loved Tombstone as much as me. We would meet almost every year on Allen Street to solve the mysteries of history and visit the outlying sites, like Galeyville, Mescal Springs, Charleston, Drew's Station and Hooker's Ranch.

   And, we called ourselves

The Renegades

Standing from left: Bob McCubbin, Jim Dunham, Bob Palmquist, Jeff Morey. Kneeling: Allen Barra, Paul Northrop, Casey Tefertiller and BBB.

Photo by Wyatt Earp (I'm not joking!)

   The Backstory: I wanted a photo of the Renegades taken on Allen Street at the exact spot that a few of us almost got into an altercation the night before. When everyone was there I looked around to see who might take the photo and lo and behold, Wyatt Earp (his actual name!) was performing up the street at the Crystal Palace and he just happened to be walking by and I asked him to take the photo. I know, if I saw it in a movie, I wouldn't believe it either.

 Phil's Recollection of That Fateful Day

Funny—and bizarre  story: When I arrived in town by myself, I was approached by a fellow who said “Wes Flowers wants to meet you.” I said “That’s fine, I’ll be down by the OK Corral for a couple of days, tell him to come by. “Oh no, the fellow replied, “Wes doesn’t come to you, you must go to him!” I realized that just as in the Old West, my reputation as a “gunslinger” had  preceded me. I thought that was funny, “was I in a scene from a  Western movie, or was this for real?”   At the same time, it was somewhat surreal, like life imitating art.  I said,” I’m sorry, but I’m here to do a job and I won’t be going to see Mr. Flowers.” I found out through Harold Love that Wes Flowers was the local “fast gun,” and he was miffed that he had been left out of the 100th anniversary celebrations. Evidently he wanted to have a mock showdown with me to prove he was the fastest gun. I was there for a specific job and wasn’t going to help him live out his “movie” fantasy, and upset Harold Love’s planned celebrations. When 11  O’clock rolled around and I didn’t show, it was crossed out, and 12  O’clock  put in and so on for the rest of the day—every  hour!  Apparently Flowers’ crowd hung out in the town by the Oriental, and that end of town, while Love’s people stayed at the Crystal Palace and that end, toward the OK Corral, and neither of us crossed some sort of invisible line. Love didn’t want me to engage in any nonsense with Flowers, since he felt that Wes Flowers was just trying to steal away publicity form Harold Love’s celebration, where he had invested lots of money, by bringing me in, and other projects relating to the 100th celebration. I never did meet Wes Flowers…until several years later,  under completely different circumstances, and he was very friendly and never mentioned the OK Corral incident. I’m sure he was embarrassed that his plans flopped. I heard he had passed away several years ago.

—Phil Spangenberger


"Funny what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Calling All Smartasses: THANK YOU!

 November 21, 2021

   Let's give a shoutout this coming week for all the things that make us thankful. Personally, I am thankful for being called a smartass, because, to me, it's more than halfway to a compliment. It means at least you are thinking about being caustic or funny. On the other hand, if someone calls you simply "an ass," it's really shorthand for dumbass, which is not a complement at all.

   My Slang Dictionary says, dumbass means, "stupid, inane and tedious." While smartass—which is a close cousin to wiseass—means a person who is "quick to offer often abrasive opinions, but is usually right."

   Full disclosure: there is no mention of "being right" in my Slang Dictionary.

   So, anyway, I have always aspired to being a member in good standing of the Smartass tribe. From the time I was a small boy I have been accused of being from that tribe and, at some point, I just decided to own it.

  

In Defense of Smartasses Everywhere

   One of the criteria for being labeled a smartass is to make light of allegedly serious things.


Indigenous Grumphead Goes Ahead:
"You think this is funny?"

      If you are thinking, "Hey Boze, that's not funny!" then perhaps you might think this is funny.

Daily Whip Out: "Ass Calling"


Calling All Smartasses

   Okay, I admit it. Sometimes I can be a complete ass but what I really want is to be called is a smartass. Big difference. Oh, and lest you think I was joking about the Slang Dictionary.


My Slang Dictionary


Who else has the nerve to admit it?

"I'm looking at you, Smartass."

   If you are offended by any of this, perhaps the old vaqueros have something to tell you.

“Claiming to be offended is a great way to elevate yourself at the expense of others: 'Look at me! I'm a much better person than you! And I judge you! I condemn you! Shame! Shame! SHAME! I shame you for being a bad person. That means I'm a good person! Look at how really, really offended I am! That means I'm a really, really good person and you are an asshole!”

—Old Vaquero Saying

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Back On the Big, Bad Jack Kick

 November 20, 2021

    Back on the big, bad jack kick. In fact, I think that is a big, bad story all by itself.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"Big Bad Jack's Sadistic Grin"


   Remember Frances The Talking Mule? Must be like 1950. This is like that except for the talking.


"In the world of mules there are no rules."

—Ogden Nash

Friday, November 19, 2021

Not So Gentle Criticism

 November 19, 2021

   I didn't see this when it was published last summer, but my friend, Greg Scott, sent me his issue this week and I finally got to see how the national statue controversy plays out as it relates to Arizona Monuments and Memory.

Not So Gentle Cover


      As you already know, there is a national gnashing of teeth over many statues across the United States that are being targeted over the issues of slavery, racism and White Supremecy. My sculpture, Not-So-Gentle Tamer, in Prescott Valley, has been controversial for other reasons, and even before it was erected.

   Inside the issue, Professor Cynthia C. Prescott takes on "Myths, Memory and The Limits of Inclusivity In Arizona Pioneer Monuments." After a thorough tour of Confederate and Mormon themed monuments, the stage is set when, in the middle of the Twentieth Century, "frontier commemorations shifted toward celebrating long-suffering pioneer mothers as embodiments of white 'civilization.'"

   When it comes to my motives for the depiction of an Arizona woman dispatching a rattlesnake, Cynthia quotes me, from this blog: "That was the point of the whole deal, to honor the brave and tenacious women of Arizona who tamed the West AND the men." Then, she adds, "Its creator was subtly challenging. the 'gentle' label, but not the bigger message that women did indeed 'tame' the West and its supposedly wild men." Hmmmm, supposedly wild men? Has the good professor never been to a Kingman rodeo dance?

The talented Deb Gessner actually sculpted

the bronze from my original painting.

Here we are at the foundary.


Defenders of The Diamondback Rattler

   As for my depiction of the severed head of a rattlesnake, the author says this about my statue, "Her supposed act of self-defense against an indigenous reptile that was unlikely to strike her unless she threatened it, parallels in compelling ways justifications offered by ninteenth-century settlers for attacking Indigenous peoples whose territories they likewise invaded and transformed."

   And, she ends with, "The Not-So-Gentle Tamer statue thus serves as a not-so-gentle marker of white dominance in Prescott Valley's civic plaza."


My Oh My, Said The Rattler to the Fly

   So, will my White Women Power statue someday be taken down for being offensive to rattlesnakes everywhere? Of course it will. Haven't you been paying attention? In the end, everything is just a big, fat, cosmic joke.

". . .monuments and their meanings often prove to be less permanent than their builders intend. . ."

—Christopher M. Bradley on "Confederate Fantasy Heritage" in the same issue

Thursday, November 18, 2021

When Once Is Enough

 November 18, 2021

     Bill Watters and I are working on the final cut of the 140th Anniversary at the O.K. Corral Show. I knew I had a certain picture that would inform something I said in my impromptu talk in the O.K. Corral theater. I told the story about how I took my new bride, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant to the O.K. Corral and she was not happy about it. In fact she was on the verge of tears. She asked me how many times I had been there and I speculated, "I don't know, maybe six?" Her legendary words were spoken through tears, "Wouldn't once have been enough?"

    Four weeks later, here Kathy is at full term, nine months and holding. And holding Carole Glenn's daughter Emily on our front porch at 707 W. MacKenzie in Phoenix, Arizona.


May 7, 1980, two hours before,
well, you know. . .

   She gave birth to Deena later the same day. We have been blessed ever since, but it must be said, for the record, Kathy has never been back to the O.K. Corral.

   Once was enough.

"A thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen."

—John Steinbeck, "Sweet Thursday," 1955

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

O.K. Corral Footage From The 1981 Centennial of The Fight

 November 16, 2021

   I finally found the 8mm film I shot in the O.K. Corral on the centennial of the gunfight, October 26, 1981. 

A screen grab from the 1981 film

    Notice the sign is different from today and I believe there are three different groups of Earps, and three different groups of cowboys at the event.



The second centennial fight, shot from
the roof of Fly's Boarding House. That's Ben Traywick as Wyatt Earp, second from left.


The 1981 O.K. Corral Re-enactment


   A friendly reminder, there is no sound on these old 8mm films.


“A hero is a revered character in ancient poetry living by a continually flawed personal honor code.”

—Old Vaquero Saying

Monday, November 15, 2021

Dan The Man Mocks Up Some Slick Covers for In-din Police

 November 15, 2021

   Getting set to do a big cover story on In-din police. Dan The Man mocked up several excellent covers.

In-din Police Cover #1


   This fantastic photo came to us via Stuart Rosebrook who found it in a rare collection. The rest are from author John Langellier who is doing this subject as a book.


In-din Police Cover #2


   I think the cover really pops but some on the staff think it robs the picture of its historical significance and it should run as much like the original photo as possible. So, Dan oblidged, and here is that version.


In-din Police Cover #3


   Okay, which one would you buy off the newsstand?


   I know, I know. We change these covers so often, tweaking here and blending there, trying to find just the right balance. Of course it's a labor of love, and you know what they say about change.


"To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often."

—Winston Churchill



Sunday, November 14, 2021

Big Jack Action, Part II

 November 14, 2021

   It's time for a series of very quick, daily whip outs, every single one, with the exception of one.

Daily Whip Out:

"Mickey Grabs Some Air On That Big, Bad Jack" 


Daily Whip Out: "More Big Jack Action" 


Daily Whip Out:

"Even More Big, Jack Action" 


Daily Whip Out: "Total Big, Jack Action" 


   So, who gave me the courage? This guy.


"Go write. Go draw. Right now. Punch your excuses in the face."

—Gene Luen Yang, creator of Shang-Chi, and a graphic novel veteran

Friday, November 12, 2021

Big, Bad Jack Action Homework

 November 12, 2021

   When I was younger I had this very vivid fantasy of going back to high school, armed with all the knowledge and experience I had accumulated AFTER high school, and reeking havoc on all the bullies and snotheads who gave me mental and physical wedgies. Of course, this revenge fantasy faded after my 25th reunion and disappeared completely by the fiftieth. 

   All that said, a good friend of mine is taking a graphic novel course in Prescott and he asked me if I wanted to dust off our Mickey Free character and apply it to this beginners class on how to create a graphic novel. I actually thought this was a great idea, but when I mentioned this to one of my family members, they laughed and said, "Wouldn't that be like a NASCAR racer taking driver's ed?"

   Kindah, but here's the truth: something is definitely missing from my tool kit or I would be on, at least, my tenth graphic novel by now. I certainly have thought up enough characters: La Gata, Dick Matric, The Doper Roper, Honkytonk Sue, El Kid, Dixxy Diamond, El Pendejo, Nina Suprema and The Mexicali Stud, to name just a few.


 Daily Whip Out: "The Mexicali Stud"


   So, what stops me? Well we're about to find out.


Homework Assignment Number One:

1. Choose a single, action-heavy sequence and break down each page and panel and describe what is happening physically.

Daily Whip Out: "Big Jack Yaqui Action" 


    So, that's the rough layout, each one a page. Up next, the panel by panel breakdown:


Daily Whip Out: "More Big Jack Action" 


   The rider wrangles his rough mount with frequent slaps of his loose reins, and the Big Jack chafes at the commands and half bucks all the way up the trail.


Daily Whip Out:

"Deer Head Yaqui Crouches Low" 

Cutting under a deep shelf at the head of the canyon the rider begins his ascent to the next chain of ridges, when a lone shadow from above jumps onto the rider's back and attempts to plunge a long knife into his throat. 


Daily Whip Out: "Goodbye Extra Baggage"


Startled by the extra baggage, the big mule really does buck this time sending both riders off into the dust, as two more Yaquis jump in from the other side of the canyon walls and join the fight.


"So, what happens next?"

—The Goal of Every Sequence

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Taylor Sheridan vs. Phil Sheridan

 November 11, 2021

   Kathy and I watched the two-part opening of the fourth season of Yellowstone last night. I had a couple of incentives to watch. One is, the writing is very good, and two, the production company ordered a box of assorted True West magazines to scatter around the Dutton bunkhouse. Haven't seen one yet, but, if you find one in an upcoming episode, send it to me. I promise you will be rewarded appropriately. 

   Meanwhile, I was talking to the Top Secret Writer yesterday about a future article on the man who saved Yellowstone Park (that would be General Phil Sheridan) and Paul told me when he casually Googled "Sheridan Yellowstone" he got a whole page of Taylor Sheridan and the TV show "Yellowstone," and not the guy who saved the park.


   And speaking of the founder of the feast, I believe this is the man himself:


Taylor Sheridan as Travis Wheatley

   Yes, this is a screen capture of the co-creator and writer of the series. A quick search confirms it's him and, evidently, his character takes the snot-nosed kid introduced in the first episode, Jimmy, back to the famed Four Sixes Ranch in Texas. This will also be the location of the next Yellowstone spinoff series, 6666. So, if I understand this correctly, we're getting a spin off called Y1883 which stars Sam Eliott, among others, and then there will be another spinoff called 6666! That is crazy, if true.

   Well, speaking of head spinning, I especially enjoyed the flashback in the first episode to the 1880s cowboys encountering the In-dins on the Dutton Ranch. I checked with someone who works on the show and he told me they filmed those scenes a week before the show aired and got it inserted into the mix! Now that is a fast turnaround.

"Yes, I got a call to come to Montana ASAP with some of my Plains Indian regalia to help with the Native riders who showed up to work on the show. It seems that long hair is not so much in fashion right now and not all of the wigs were cutting it. I provided Indian Feather headdresses, otter caps, and Buffalo Headdresses that really helped to sell the scenes. I saw the commercial Sunday night and sure enough there was a quick cut to a warrior racing with a 'Warbonnet' on. I can't reveal anything other that to say that the crew I worked with are very good at their jobs and the look is every bit as good and EPIC as 'Lonesome Dove'. The writing is outstanding which is no surprise since Taylor Sheridan is a genius in that capacity. I am proud and grateful to have added my thimble full of effort to the show."
—Jim Hatzell

   Loved this line from episode two:

"Living in Montana is just poverty with a view."
—Taylor Sheridan

All Those Trips to The O.K. Corral Finally Paid Off

 November 11, 2021

   Here's the second video from our Tombstone adventure. You'll notice we got to use some more of the dreaded drone footage.


An O.K. Award


   Truly a fine honor and it was doubly sweet because it happened at the O.K. Corral


BBB Corrals Award


"An inward focus is the ticket out."

—Old Vaquero Saying