Billy the Kid Has Long Played Second Fiddle In New Mexico

 February 8, 2024

   Amy Dunn is in the studio, so lots of curating going on.

BBB Billy Cover, AZ Highways, August, 1991

   I have a handful of these collector's items for sale in the BBB Art Studio Blowout Sale. These AZ Billy the Kid issues are $10 each while supplies last.

   Speaking of the Kid. . .

Art Opening of The Bang Gang

(Ouch! that didn't age well!)

Thom Ross, BBB and Buckeye Blake

April 4, 2011

The Kid Krazy Kids Ride Again. Yes, long after a Billy show in Santa Fe (where the above photo was taken by Lucinda Amorosano) these three bad boy artists are teaming up once again to give the Kid his due. That's The Pocket Protector Kid (Thom Ross), BBB and Buckeye Blake. In case you don't know, Billy the Kid has long been shunned and shamed by the big dogs in politics, especially in Santa Fe. "The Kid wasn't Navajo," is how Buckeye puts it, about why the state doesn't give Bonney his due at the Fort Sumner site. That also is about to change. Besides us, two other guys are planning a monumental (ahem) show over there with a proper gravesite memorial. More on them and their efforts soon.

   Meanwhile, from the archives of the BBB Franklin Daytimer Entries. . .

August 14, 2003
   Tried to rain last night but only sprinkled. Came home at two and painted non-stop until about 6:30. Got a decent study done of Billy jumping through the side gate. I worked through several lighting problems and hope to execute the real one today. Also worked on the Robert Beckwith shot in the eye painting (my perspective is just prior to the shot). 
Nice effects in that one. About 80% done. Going to stay home today and work on both of them. Need to finish ASAP (issue goes to press Monday and we have no cover). Ah, sweet deadline. If it wasn’t for you I would have nothing.

BBB Original Painting Featuring All My

Kid Krazy Frenemies Like Paul Andrew Hutton,

Bill Richardson, Drew Gomber, oh

and Crazy Steve of Capitan, and don't forget the craziest of them all, Gail Cooper

   Met with Daniel H. and Robert R. yesterday about design problems. The new typography on Classic Gunfights is too lean. I watched Kathy perusing the newest issue and after she cruised by CG I said, “What did you think of Classic Gunfights?” and she said, “Is it in this issue?” That’s a problem. Type is too svelte and urbane. Classic Gunfights should be bold and Wanted Posterish. Hope to rectify this for the next issue.
   Went to lunch with Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Brink and R.G. Went to Tonto. We all had half cobb salads, except Bob B. who had the full ($50 biz account). Talked about Jeb’s pitch next Monday at Westerns Channel. [this led to my stint as the host of True West Moments which ran from 2003 to 2014]

August 19, 2003
Running on empty. Literally. I’m going to drive up to the office this morning and I have maybe enough fumes to get through a gas line (both Circle Ks have been out of gas for two days).
   Jeb R. hit a home run at the Westerns Channel yesterday. They passed on the proposed gunfighter doc but have counter-proposed a bumper series featuring a middle-aged narrator who they claim “has the camera presence of a Dennis Hopper.” This commentator (that would be me) would give a 60-90 second True West moment and it would run every day. This actually might work better than the full-blown show on the other network.

End of Franklin Daytimer Entries

_______

   The first batch of True West Moments were actually filmed in late 2003 at my house and studio in Cave Creek. Jeff Hildebrandt was the producer and director on almost all of the Moments. Over the years we did many shoots at different locations, including Wichita's Old Cowtown, Tombstone, Tucson, Prescott, Festival of the West, Pioneer Living History Museum; Lincoln, New Mexico and Durango, Colorado. By my count we did about 75 TW Moments.

"In New Mexico the Kid has long played second fiddle."

—Buckeye Blake