Bob Says Hello Right Back at The Kid

 April 19, 2023

   I read recently a famous artist's advice to up and comers: do not show them how you do the art because it kills the magic. Sorry, too late for me.

Daily Whip Out: "Hello, Bob #11"

   When the Kid was cornered at Stinking Springs Pat Garrett got word Billy was sporting a sugarloaf sombrero with a green hatband. Makes some Irish-Mexican sense, so that is most likely the headgear Billy Bonney was still wearing at his final incarceration in the Lincoln County Courthouse. As for his clothes, that is another matter because a mail contractor, Mike Cosgrove, bought five new suits for Billy and his cohorts in the Las Vegas, New Mexico jail so the boys would "go out in style." So the Kid was most likely still wearing his new suit of clothes but probably the same old sombrero. There is some argument about whether he was even wearing a hat when he leaned out the window of the courthouse and hailed Bob Olinger (above). Would he be wearing the headgear inside? Perhaps not, but, he did ask deputy J. W. Bell (no relation) to go the outhouse and that was outside and no self-respecting man would step outside without a hat on. My guess is he had the hat on in the privy trip, then coming back into the courthouse, still had it on going up the stairs and after the killing of Bell he didn't bother to take off the hat. Yes, that is a long-winded way of saying, I'm going with the big-ass-hat.

   Okay, I admit, in some ways, the big sombrero looks wrong, because we're so used to seeing the Kid in the slouch hat he is wearing in his only known photo. So that brings us back to here.

Daily Whip Out: "Hello, Bob #13"

   And if you are paying attention, all of which, leads us back to here.

R. Crumb's Clear-eyed View of the Universe

"When it comes to beating a dead horse, metaphorically, nobody does it better than me."

—BBB