A Half Century of BBB Sketchbooks By The Numbers

 November 25, 2024

One of the surprising insights into going back through all my sketchbooks is how many different story ideas I had which I have never really paid off, like this one.

Daily Whip Outs:

"The 47 First Loves of A Soiled Dove"

Here are the top five story ideas I found in my sketchbooks that I'd still like to pursue:

• The Night Man

• Pepe From Opodepe

• The Mexicali Stud

Daily Whip Out: "The Mexicali Stud"

• El Pendejo

• El Divisadaro

And, you might be surprised to know, not all the sketches are by me.

Deena Bean's Portrait of her father

This was done on Mission Beach in San Diego when Deena was nine years old. She saw me sketching and said, "Can I try one?" Well, of course!

BBB Sketchbooks By The Numbers

• Number of sketchbooks, so far: 94

• Number of original characters created: 38

• Number of pages with no drawings, just words: 85

• Number of landscapes: 139

Daily Whip Out: "Yellow Storm"

• Number of truly awful drawings: 4,326

• Number of decent drawings: 2,087

• Number of exceptional, or, at least, inspired drawings per sketchbook: 2 to 4 on average, like this:

Daily Whip Outs: "Bull By The Horns"

(May 18, 2007)

• Number of Whip Outs that made it into publication: 772

• Number of educated guesstimates on this list: about half of the above.

"If you want to write a good book, write about the things you don't want people to know about you. If you want to write a great book, write about the things you don't want to know about yourself."

—David Perell