The Dangerous Marlow Brothers, Part I

 September 30, 2024

      There is a certain Old West story that has always kind of repulsed me, but I have to admit, those crazy brothers were not to be trifled with. Hell, they are the only prisoners I have ever heard of where a mob stormed the jail to kill them and the brothers killed the armed attackers! Whoa! The Marlow brothers were not to be messed with, period!

On The Drawing Board:

"Shackled, The Marlow Brothers Were

Even More Dangerous"

   Wanted to finish this today, but still have an hour more to go.

   As the story goes, William H. Wright picked up a copy of Life of the Marlows by Glenn Shirley in a Los Angeles bookstore in 1953. Thinking that it would make the basis of a good Western, he paid members of the Marlow family $1,000 (about $11388.06 when adjusted for inflation several decades later) each for the rights to make it into a screenplay. But when the movie was made 12 years later, the film's plot had been drastically changed and apparently the Reno brothers were the ultimate inspiration for the revised story. Also, Kate Elder, is Doc Holliday's old lady's handle and so we have that connection as well.   If any of this story sounds vaguely familiar you might remember a movie called The Sons of Katie Elder.

What was I working on

Five Years Ago Today?

Daily Flashback Scratchboard Whip Out:

"Four Stars Over Apacheland"

   Four is a magic number among the White Mountain people an it shows up in all their myths and stories.

   Meanwhile, I have a friend who is almost as crazy as I am for good hats.

Darcy Hatjacker

   He is also a pretty decent reference for a certain old vaquero.

"If you realize you are a fool, you are halfway to not being a fool."

—Old Vaquero Saying

The Bob Boze Bell Stinking Badges Art Show

 September  29, 2024

   Not much makes me happier than making my family laugh. And, by extension, that would include anyone who reads this blog. You are my extended family. So, let me try out a zany concept on you. But, first, a little background from a previous post back in February of 2022.

A Blast From The BBB Past

   Thanks to my son, I have returned to "The Underdogs" by Mariano Azuela, which is a brutal, eloquent, disenchanted, first-hand-take on the Mexican Revolution. Azuela was a country doctor who became a medical officer and served under Carranza and Pancho Villa, and he began his novel while still in the service (1915). So the scenes and exchanges he writes about have an intimate, he-was-there authenticity. Here is just a taste. Officers and soldiers—one of them named Towhead Margarito— are in a cantina when the confessions begin:

   "I killed a woman in Torreon 'cause she didn't want to sell me a plate of enchiladas. There was a big ol' argument about 'em. I didn't get to eat what I wanted, but at least I calmed down.
   "'I killed a shopkeeper in Parral 'cause he slipped two bills from Huerta in with the change,' said another man with a small star, his blackened, calloused fingers glittering with jewels.

   "I killed a guy in Chihuahua 'cause I always ran into 'im at the same table at the same time whenever I'd go in to eat lunch. . .He really annoyed me! What do ya want?"

   "H'm! I killed. . ."

   "The theme is inexhaustible."

—Mariano Azuela, "The Underdogs" which in Spanish, Los de Abajo  means "those from below" and that gives it a double meaning.

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Towhead Margarito"

   And, speaking of killers with badges, did I mention that Dan Duffy sold my original "Badges?" scratchboard yesterday up at Patinas, in Cave Creek? Yes, here it is on the wall before it was whisked away by a very sharp-eyed buyer.

"Badges?" by BBB

Badges Correction

   Actually, in the 1948 classic "The Treasure of the Sierria Madre", the Mexican bandit leader (Alfonso Bedoya) tries to convince Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) that he and his men are Federales. Dobbs asks, "If you're the police, where are your badges?" And the bandit replies, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"

  In the 1927 novel of the same name (on which the movie is based), the bandit says, "Badges, to god-damned hell with badges. In fact, we don't need badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabron and chinga tu madre!

   So, I thought it might be fun to put together an entire art show with Los Federales, Rurales, Banditos and Adelitas and call the entire kit and kaboodle, "The BBB Stinking Badges Art Show". This prompted Rooster Rob to produce this little gem.

   I thought this one was ridiculous because it's a German accent! Althought that's kind of zany. So Rob sent me this one.

   Which is more accurate, but is it funnier than the first one? Well, is it? Or, is it funny only in the context of being ridiculous if you know the first one? That's the question to you my Zane family.

Free BBBeeer Coasters With Every Purchase!

   Yes, if you buy a scratchboard, or any piece of BBB art you will walk out with three free BBBeer coasters!

One Little Steenking Caveat

   Sorry, on November 9 at Patinas in Cave Creek you must be wearing a badge to enter the building.

"Sorry, no Stinking Badge, no entry."

—Dan Duffy

Jana's Voice Is Gone But Her Words Live On

 September 28, 2024

   Thanks to one of Jana's best friends, that would be Athia Hardt—we now know that Jana Bommersbach wrote 370 articles for True West! Wow. That is a ton of writing, excuse me, great writing from Arizona's most awarded journalist in the state's history.

   Here is how her editor puts it:

Jana Still Dancin With The One

Who Brung Her.

   Here's a sneak peek at Stuart's book take on Jana in the next issue of True West magazine.

From the Pen of Jana Bommersbach
   The silence is deafening. When the pen of a great writer is put down for the last time and the words stop singing from their hand to the page, we all hear it. And it is louder than you can imagine.
   Since Jana Bommersbach’s passing on July 17, 2024, in Fargo, North Dakota, her voice and joy, her words and wishes, her curiosity and imagination—her passionate pursuit of justice and bringing voice to the voiceless—was suddenly and quietly silenced. Odd and strange how that happens. It will happen to all of us—but no matter who it maybe—or the circumstances surrounding each of our last moments on this earthly plain—the quiet that surrounds someone who made their living with words—with storytelling—is not silent at all. In fact, their words, their voice, their wanting to share what they just learned, roars in our ears.
   How will we keep Jana’s voice heard beyond our own imagination? The best and only way I know is to keep reading her writing—sharing it with others—and sharing stories of her with all those willing to listen and be inspired.
   The best place to start is True West’s archives. Jana, a dear and close friend of TW’s Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell for 50 years, was a contributor to the magazine from almost the first month BBB owned it. She was a trailblazer on women’s history in the Western magazine and 25 years of columns and features beg to be edited into follow-up volumes to Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real History of The Wild West.
   Where else can you find Jana’s voice? Go online and you will find her byline in the pages of The Arizona Republic, The New Times and Phoenix Magazine. She also brought her voice to television, where Jana’s great sense of justice and humor can be discovered in her contributions to PBS and KTVK-TV3. For those of us who followed her writing, she seemed omnipotent, there was nothing she could not do.
   And how about her books: take the time to go back and rediscover Jana’s writing, including her novel Cattle Kate: A Mystery, her biography The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd and Bones in the Desert: The True Story of a Mother’s Murder and a Daughter’s Search.
   I promise you—once you start reading Jana Bommersbach—her voice will never be silenced and her voice will always be with you.

—Stuart Rosebrook

   That my friends is pure poetry.

Opening spread, Nov-Dec issue of True West

"There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either."

—Robert Graves

Crazy Horse Meets Carmen Miranda—What The Hell Does That Look Like?

 September 27, 2024

   In my Youtube video yesterday I wanted to convey just how wrong Ike Clanton's hat is in the new docudrama Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War.

Ike Clanton wearing his 1972 Flying Taco Headgear

    This is a cowboy hat from the 1970s not the 1880s. Often called a Bullrider, or a flying taco job, it was never worn in the real Old West and it absolutely insults my eyeballs to see it on the head of Ike Clanton in scene after scene. How wrong is it? It would be like watching a documentary on John Dillinger and he's wearing this on his head:

The Original Gangster look

circa 1933

Or, better yet how about a Carmen Miranda fruit head dress on Crazy Horse?

"Trust me they'll never spot the difference."

—Too many producers under the age of 50

   Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I merely want to illustrate to you how passionate myself and all the True West Maniacs are about Westerns and how serious we take them. In our group, I am known as Mister Restraint. And, to repeat, we are crazy, but we're not insane.

   Also, a big shoutout to Rooster Rob who mashed up the Carmen Miranda and Dillinger images. Great job on a ridiculous premise.

  When solid history meets creative storytelling, something has to give. There's an old Texan saying: "If you can't improve on a story, you have no business retelling it in the first place." The "kids" who made Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War felt like they were reimagining the myth and they wanted to tell their version of the epic tale, and so they have.

   In the end enthusiasm covers most bets. This show has brought new fans to our world and we appreciate that. If it gets one punk kid like me to be inspired to study what really happened in Tombstone then it will have all been worth it.

   In the future though, please call me and I'll help you to avoid stepping in historical do do.

"My name is Bob Boze Bell and I approve of this very mixed message."

—BBB

Appointment With Destiny Gets A Closer Look at the 38:44 Mark

 September  26, 2024

   I'm getting ready for today's taping of my review of Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War, the Netlfix docudrama that has already been seen by over four million people. I really hadn't planned on commenting on it, but so many readers and friends have asked me what they got right and what they got wrong, so I finally decided I had to step up and give my opinion, and take my shots, and also to give credit where credit is due.

   One of the talking heads on the show had this to say about all the nitpickers and whiners:

"I've got to think you've gotten at least a whiff of all the hand wringing and bellyaching coming from our colleagues and fellow western history enthusiasts about the many historical inaccuracies in the Netflix docuseries 'Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War.' What a travesty, they say, that viewers, especially impressionable youth, are being misled, that the truth of the past is taking a beating. I would like to ask these same critics, though, how many of them first took an interest in the Old West after reading Walter Noble Burns or Stuart Lake? So far, 'Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War' is among the top ten TV shows on Netflix. It's garnered more than four million views, and the reviews in the media have been overwhelmingly positive. The audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 84% fresh."

  By the way, the producer of Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War, Stephen David Entertainment, also produced a documentary on Sitting Bull for Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions and the History Channel. I was interviewed for that as well. Still no word on when that will air.

   The docuseries has definitely raised my profile. Lots of emails and new Instagram followers. And folks wanting to buy the book that's listed each time I appear onscreen, which won't be released until November of next year!

—Mark Lee Gardner

   Some of my other friends have compared the new show to the classic David Wolper docudrama Appointment With Destiny: Showdown at O.K. Corral (shot like a newsreel) and which totally changed the direction of my life when I saw it back in 1974.

Wyatt and Doc in Destiny Doc

   The Wolper show has more than a few things in common with the new Cowboy War version of events.

Lorne Green's baritone pipes on full display

Apointment With Destiny Revisited

"I just watched this excellent doc yet again. I remember when I first saw it in 1971 and that cemented the event in me for life.  I agree that it is the best amd fairest recounting of that gunfight. If you go to the 38:42 moment in the film you will see Virgil blink, in slo-mo, 4 times; these are the best "blinks" in cinematic history! 

Virgil Between Blinks

With Eternity at 38:44 

   "Better than Leone...better than "Tombstone".....maybe it is due to the black and white photography, I don't know.  I think it is the momentary use of slo-mo for those few seconds that really make Virgil's decision seem epic."

—Thom "Kid" Ross

L-R: Kid Ross, BBB and Buckeye Blake

(photo by Lucinda Amorosano)

Key word: "epic." the makers of Wyatt Earp and The Cowboy War seemed to want to error on the side of epic. They took the show wider to include world capitalists and how they may have affected the conflict. I can't speak to the accuracy of those assertions because it's out of my purview, but it was a refreshing new angle into the story. 

"History itself sometimes has a bad memory."

—Lorne Green, narrating Destiny

The Mob Boss of The Cowboys Was Barney Fife?

 September 25, 2024

   To me the biggest historical faux pas in the new Netflix show Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War was portraying Ike Clanton as a "mob boss." The point was hammered home numerous times to try and make Old Man Clanton's oldest son, into something he never was—the leader of the Cowboy Gang. It was patently obvious why the producers of the show did this, but to me it was like trying to pass off Don Knotts as Don Corleone.

"Do you want to wake up with a horse head

in your bed? Well, do you?"

   Well, do you?

Barney Fife Acts Tough

"You talk too much for a fighting man."

—Wyatt Earp to Ike Clanton mere hours before the street fight

My Critical Take On The New Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War Docudrama

 September 24, 2024

   Finished watching all six episodes of Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War on Netflix last night and I had two realizations and a couple questions.

My critical take on the Netflix docudrama

The Big Realization

   Ultimately I realized how critical and judgmental I have become about the history I know and love, and the second is, well, I'll get to the more life changing realization in a minute.

   Was the costuming spotty? Yes. Ike Clanton's 1972 Bull-Rider-Flying-Taco hat is the worst hat in a portrayal of an 1880s Western I have seen since the Three Stooges Go West. Were there historical mistakes? Absolutely, and some of them were fictions by omission. Where was Johnny Ringo? And where was Wyatt's wife, Mattie? Was she left out to soften the criticism of Wyatt having an affair with Johnny Behan's live-in girlfriend? And don't get me started on the Arizona Ranger Super Posse at the end where we see Rangers from the 1903 era showing up in the events of the 1880s. This would be like showing a Navy Seal Team on Normandy Beach.

Arizona Rangers at Morenci, 1903

   I emailed one of my favorite Tombstone historians and asked him what he thought of the new show. Jeff Morey said he hadn't seen it, but he told me he thought the David Wolper production on "Appointment With Destiny" was the best documentary on the events surrounding the O.K. fight ever done. That took me back.

   I remember a certain kid who saw "Appointment With Destiny: Showdown at The O.K. Corral" when it first came out in 1974 and it changed the direction of his life. He was living in Tucson and after the show aired, this kid immediately made his way to Tombstone to see where it all happened and he made a vow to put out a graphic novel on the affair in time for the 1881 centennial. He failed to meet that deadline, but he did get to meet the historical consultant on the documentary, John D. Gilchriese who opened a Wyatt Earp Museum in Tombstone the same year of the Destiny doc.

   Eventually the kid did publish his graphic novel in 1993 and he sent one to Gilchriese and several of his history cronies and this is what John said: "There's a mistake on every page." 

   Needless to say, the kid was taken aback by the rejection.

   For your viewing pleasure, here's the show:

"Appointment With Destiny: Showdown at The O.K. Corral"

   The Wolper show is now fifty years ago. It wasn't perfect either, but it did ignite more than one kid's imagination and interest to study what really happened in Tombstone. And in the last half century, me and many other Boomer kids have done just that. And some of the best of those "kids" were on the show. Casey Tefertiller, John Boessenecker, Paul Andrew Hutton, Jeff Guinn and Mark Lee Gardner did us all proud. What they said was so right on it's kind of shocking how the rest of the show went off the rails so fast. Here's why:

   When solid history meets creative storytelling, something has to give. There's an old Texan saying: "If you can't improve on a story, you have no business retelling it in the first place." The "kids" who made Wyatt Earp And The Cowboy War felt like they were reimagining the myth and they wanted to tell their version of the epic tale, and so they have.

O.K. Troubles vs. O.K. Blessings

   I refuse to respond like the petty historians who scolded me, rebuffed me and tried to cancel me. Bravo for the show and I hope it reaches a whole new generation of kids who love our history just like that kid in Tucson, who of course, was me.

"The ultimate revenge is to not be like your enemies."

—Marcus Aurelius

Grandpa Ha Ha Freaks Out Shocked Granddaughter Plus Netflix Series Brings Out Nitpickers Like Me

September 23, 2024

   A young girl in the Seattle area freaks at seeing her grandfather's magazine in the wild.

She sometimes wonders if, in fact, Grandpa Ha Ha, even has a magazine. Look Mama, it's real! True West actually exists! And the young girl's mother wonders aloud, "look at the checkout placement. Who is Grandpa paying off?" 

An Educated Guess

   The answer to the last question is Grandpa is not paying anyone off. His magazine is one of the few surviving publications still in the newsstand game and it's possible, the superior placement is because there are fewer and fewer titles to place near the checkout at the QFC in Issaquah, Washington.

Is A Fair And Balance Review of The Netflix Show We Co-Produced Even Possible?

   This is a weird position to be in, but here goes.

   Yes, Ken Amorosano and I are listed as co-producers on the new Netflix series and it is true back in 2022 they asked me who I would recommend as the best Wyatt Earp scholars in the field. And, it's true I put them together with Casey Tefertiller, Mark Lee Gardner, Jeff Guinn and Paul Andrew Hutton. In the show, all my guys expound with great knowledge and every time they are on screen you get excellent, solid explanations of the Tombstone events.

   When we get to the re-enactments, well, that is another ball of wax I wish they would have asked me about.

Netflix Re-enactments Brings Out Nitpickers Like Me!

Hatless Brothers? Are You Flippin' Insane?

   Granted, some of my headgear prejudices and costume nitpicking will be on full display when I do the review on Youtube this coming Thursday. Stay tuned. I am going to grade everything from A+ to F-. I promise to be both fair and balanced and unhinged and passionate about the two things I love dearly: accurate history and good storytelling. What happens when those two forces of nature collide? You are about to find out.

"History is an inheritance, a gift and a burden. It can't be shirked. you carry it everywhere. There's nothing for it but to get to know it."

—Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of The United States

Memorial Week And The Mayer of Nothing

 September 22, 2023

   It has been quite a week of memorials for old friends. The Ed Mell memorial was Tuesday and a memorial was held last friday in Kingman for a genuine, soft-spoken cowboy I grew up with.

Bill Blake

(1947-2024)

   Yesterday, at Brophy chapel in the heart of old Phoenix, a Christmas themed memorial was held for Jana Bommersbach. Yes, she loved Christmas so much, several memorial goers dressed as if it was the holiday season in her honor.

Dewey Webb, Charlie Waters and Jana Bommersbach at New Times, circa 1979

    I took this photo when Charlie came down to Phoenix from Prescott where he was the publisher of the Prescott Courier. And I took him into work to show off my best friend. He was impressed with one of our reporters—Jana, and they hit it off immediately. Hard for me to believe, but all three are gone.

The Mayor of Nothing

   "If you are thinking of relocating, this is a place where goodness can be reclaimed and where all ideologies are welcome and nobody will judge you because of the news you watch. Yes, this is where profound cynicism goes to die. It's a place devoid of all petty human tendencies. Meditation is available to anyone on any street corner. A cosmic well-being is practiced by everyone who lives here and some say it contains the very best of America. There is no crime, only perfect love. Many have commented that there is a raw beauty in the surroundings, unspoiled by human hands. And if it is solitude you are seeking, then this is the place! You can live by your ideals that transcend ego and strife. So, if this sounds good, my advice to you is to start packing."

—The Current Mayor of Nothing

  The ghost town of Nothing, is on the edge of Mohave County, between Wickenburg and Wikiup, on Highway 93. It was founded in 1977 with a gas station and store, abandoned, then restarted and abandoned again. A town sign proclaimed:

"Thru the years these dedicated people had faith in nothing, hoped for nothing, worked at nothing, for nothing."

   It's all gone now, except for the sign clinging to sagging posts, but I always smile at the humor of the place every time I drive by on my way home to Kingman. At some point, it is my goal to live there full time, and if all these memorials I have been going to are any indication, that time is much closer than I think.

"Nothing ventured, El Ciudad de Nada gained."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Old D.R. Lookin' Good In The Rearview

 September 21, 2024

   Been thinking alot about the old days these days. This takes me back to old Arizona.

Daily Whip Out:

"Granthum P. Hooker As I Remember Him"

And speaking of old Arizona cowboys, here's another Rooster Reel in progress.

   Kathy and I attended the Jana Bommersbach memorial service at Brophy in Phoenix this morning. Saw so many oldtimers, like me.

"Be glad that you are free, free to change your mind, Free to go most anywhere, anytime. . ."

—Prince

Buff, Utah And The Six Degrees of Separation Indeed!

 September 20, 2024

   For the past two days I have been trying to remember the name of the small Utah town Ed Mell and I blasted through on our way back to Arizona after a plein air painting trip many moons ago. I finally got out an old atlas of ours and ran my finger along the border until I found it.

Bluff, Utah

   As we shot through Bluff—such a fitting name!—and came up over the rim on the south side of town, the red-ridged desert floor spread out behind us as did those distinctive Navajo country-flat-bottomed clouds and that is when Ed asked me to stop the car so he could capture a few pictures for later reference. I think it's safe to say he got what he wanted.

"High Clouds" Ed Mell, 1993

   On a related note, got this from Rooster Rob yesterday. What do you get for a guy who loves sombreros and a nice, full cabernet?

El Corko!

And it totally rocks! Speaking of The Rooster, we're working on a bunch of Rooster Reels and I think these suckers need a logo.

Daily Whip Out: "Crowing Rooster!"

   Here is a video we are working on.

Cowboy Slang Video

   This just in. Guess who's grandfather is on this well-digging head frame, probably showing off?

   If you guessed Benjamin Daniel Harshberger, you would be correct. According to Dan The Man, his grandfather lived in Bluff for a while before moving to Valentine, Arizona in Mohave County. And, here is Dan at the same site recently.

Dan The Man in Bluff, Utah

"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."

—Steven Wright

Don't Look Back Unless You Make A Living Doing That!

 September 19, 2024

   I was pleasantly surprised to read that Herb Alpert has just released his fiftieth record album. The 89-year-old trumpet player, famous for "A Taste of Honey" and his band, the Tijuana Brass, said, "I don't look back. I go forward."

The sexiest album cover ever displayed at

Mohave Electric in Kingman, Arizona

circa 1965

   That's kind of funny to me—the not looking back part—and a teensy bit ironic, because that's practically all I do.

I Always Look Back

   All the answers to most of my problems are in the past. In fact, I would argue that the past holds the keys to the future.

   Satchel would not agree.

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."

—Satchel Paige

   Someone else who is always looking back is Dan The Man. Look what he just created.

Andy Devine On Andy Devine

He's cruising by Desert Drugs in downtown Kingman where both Dan and I bought the latest issue of True West magazine circa 1959.

   Someone else who looks back for a living is this fellow Zonie and a very fine photographer.

Jay Dusard, "Skeeter Cowboy"

A Blast From the True West Moments Past

   "To the Arizona cowboy, language has always meant imaginative mangling. Something isn’t just loud, it’s noisy as a fog horn in a funeral parlor. A man isn’t lazy, he just always seems to be sittin’ on the south side of his pants. Nobody is merely blind, they’re blind as a rattler in August. You don’t call someone a coward, you say he’s all gurgle and no guts. Your pal is more than brave, he’s got sand, and if you want to know how much, he’ll fight a rattler and give him first bite. And buckshot means burying every time. Are these accurate?
Right as rain."

—BBB

Remembering The Edmundo Segundo School of Art

 September 18, 2024

   We were on the road home from a plein air painting trip in southeastern Utah when Edmundo told me to pull over. We got out of the car and Ed stepped into the road and started shooting photos like crazy.

   "God's just showing off now," I quipped as I took in the dramatic sky and canyons spreading out behind us, at the same time realizing what Ed was excited about. He gave me a courtesy laugh and kept on shooting.

   Later, as we dropped into Arizona and took in Horseshoe Canyon and then Agatha Peak in a dust storm, the same flurry of shots took place, with Edmundo taking in the entire panorama with his camera.

   Ed Mell had the eye. And, it must be said, he put in the work.

Edmundo with one of the paintings he created from one of our plein air painting trips

   Last night 400 of Ed Mell's oldest and best friends got together at the Phoenix Art Museum to celebrate his superlative career in art and life. 

The Ed Mell Memorial at

The Phoenix Art Museum

September 17, 2024

   As each speaker told about some aspect of Ed's life, a slide show cycled through the catalogue of his paintings. I thought I knew most of Ed's work, but damn, that guy was prolific. We laughed and we cried. He was that kind of guy.

Some of us are old enough to remember

when Edmundo served in the Civil War

   In fact, it's his humor I will remember the most. Here's Edmundo giving us that knowing look while working on the rear end of a cayuse.

Ed Mell, "A Horse's Ass"

   And, believe me, he didn't spare his friends, either.

Edmundo mocking a certain cartoonist's

precious headgear

   Ed and I shared studio space in the eighties where the above photo was taken. In fact, this is the site of my real college education, where I learned so many things from the Master, by osmosis alone. When people ask me about my art school training, I always tell them, I did four years in the Fine Arts College at the University of Arizona and four years of graduate training from the Edmundo Segundo School of Art at this campus location:

The Ed Mell Art Studio at Tenth & Oak

in central Phoenix

   We traveled many miles together both in his studio and his many cars. One thing remains.

"In life, it's not where you go, it's who you travel with."

—Charlie Brown

This Is The Week of Memorials

 September 17, 2024

   Today is Ed Mell's birthday which is fitting because tonight there is a memorial service for him at the Phoenix Art Museum. A full report tomorrow.

Ed Mell in his studio, 2023

   Meanwhile, on Saturday there will be a memorial for Jana Bommersbach and on Friday, in Kingman, there is a memorial for my childhood friend Bill Blake.

   Word comes from Minnesota that Chip DeMann has passed in Northfield. Here is a blog post from ten years ago:

Northfield, Minnesota Where The James Gang Met Their Match

   One of the secrets to a really great historic road trip is having a great guide. In my case I had Minnesota Mike Melrose who worked at True West Magazine back in 2000. I told him I wanted to do a road trip to Northfield and together we put it together. We flew into Des Moines, rented a car and drove to his parent's house in Charles City, Iowa. Had a great dinner (sorry you can't do this, the corn on the cob was fantastic), then we took off for Minnesota, stopping in Forrest City, Iowa, where I was born, then across to Thompson (where my grandparents had a farm), Swea City, Fairmont, Estherville and up into the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. Thanks to Chip DeMann, Northfield, has the best Old West reenactment of a bank robbery on horseback I have ever seen. Thanks to Chip he joined us for the James-Younger Escape to Dundas, Millersberg, Shieldsville, Kilkenny (where they were unhorsed), Waterville Marysburg, Mankato and finally, to Hanska Slough, outside of Madelia, Minnesota where the Youngers were captured. I highly recommend this blow by blow roadtrip if you are interested in Jesse James, Cole Younger and tough Norsky's who beat them at their own game.

"They took the whole road."

—An eyewitness to the James-Younger gang riding out of Northfield with their collective tale between their legs.

Walk Where They Walked And Lay Where They Lie?!

September 16, 2024

 In the next issue of True West magazine we are launching a new history campaign—actually more of a crusade to— Walk Where They Walked. We are going to encourage you and everyone you know to get out and experience history first hand, by seeking out the actual ground where it happened. You will be amazed at what you pick up when you simply walk where they walked. Some of my crazy friends are so gung ho about this concept they even like to lay where they lied.

Author John Boessenecker channeling

Old West Spirits in Lincoln, New Mexico

 circa 1997

  Found this great photo I took of John Boessenecker in Lincoln, who looks like is trying to channel Sheriff George Peppin's head vibes through his gravestone. On the back John wrote, "McCubbin made me do it!" That would be the late, great Bob McCubbin and I am going to run this in the magazine on my editorial page as a spoof take off on our new campaign "Walk Where They Walked." Perhaps the campaign should be: 

Walk Where They Walked And Lay Where They Lied

“The robbers are all large men, none of them under six feet tall…all mounted on fine blooded horses,” continued the telegram, ending with a plug for the boy's region: “There is a hell of excitement in this part of the country.”

—Jesse James, PR agent extraordinaire

More Killer Kids And The Captivo With The Shining Eye

 September 15, 2024

   My process vs. your patience. It's a give and take thing. At some point I have to let go and at some point you are already gone. It's a trade off, for sure. But I enjoy the process and at the end of the day. . .

Work Is Only Work If You'd Rather Be Someplace Else

   Here is my work laid out this morning.

Let's zoom in for a closer look.

Daily Whip Outs In Progress

   Note the two foot soldiers at bottom, left. Here's a couple views of that work in progress.

The Killer Kids #5 for

"The Illustrated Life & Times of Jesse James"

Killer Kids #6

   I felt like the heads on the first one look a tad too pasted on, so I went a little darker (and lost the rifle butts at the bottom, but the faces are better).

   Meanwhile, got these going as well.

Daily Whip Out:

"The Captivo With The Shining Eye"

I originally had more face showing, but it killed the shine on the eye. You can see the earlier version above, in the Daily Whip Outs In Progress shot.

Meanwhile,

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Under The Tonto Brim II"

Oh, boy, I don't know. I kind of agree with Will about my "frail equipment."

"This is a hustling business and the squeaky wheels get the grease, but I'm just trying to write the best song I can each day with whatever frail equipment I have."

—Will Jennings, who won two Oscars for his songwriting lyrics