True West Keeps Going In And Out of Style But It's Guaranteed to. . .

 December 27, 2024

   Lots of commentary about the True West heavyweights who have left the building (see my editorial in the Jan-Feb issue). We all agree we need to find new voices to carry on the tradition and so I asked a young punk I know what he would write about if he was King of True West for a day and here is what he wrote to me:

Young Guns & Young Uno

"In order for our magazine to reach more younger readers, we must sometimes appeal directly to their generational tastes. After all, there is a difference between wanting more young people to become interested in the history of the American West, and wanting those young people to become interested strictly on your own terms. I’m sorry, but if you really think the average twenty-five-year-old out there is going to enjoy listening to Gene Autry or watching Shane, then I have a bridge in El Dorado I would like to sell you. Most people under the age of forty don’t even know who Ben Johnson or Richard Widmark were. But, they should! Well, they don’t. They have their own generation of movie stars like Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Tom Hardy, and Jason Momoa, all of whom have starred in quality modern Westerns. 

"True West will always make time for the classic Westerns and movie stars of decades past, but we cannot continue hanging our hats on the same old films and same old actors forever, especially when trying to reach a younger generation of readers and potential subscribers. Nor can our magazine always rely on the same old voices. Not with such a hungry crew of younger scholars—including Janelle Molony, Erik Wright, John LeMay, Josh Slatten, James Townsend, Corey Recko, Samuel K. Dolan, Matthew Bernstein, Benjamin Doss, and yours truly—very much on the rise. 

"The recent emergence of a younger generation of American West scholars means fresh analysis, different interpretations of sources, exciting discoveries, and plenty of new ideas and perspectives. Think James W. Bell was an innocent lawman? James Townsend’s research has revealed that Bell was actually a fugitive who had fled Texas due to his involvement in the murder of a farmer when Billy the Kid shot him. Think Tombstone was an unruly place? Have a read of Sam Dolan’s Hell Paso: Life and Death in the Old West's Most Dangerous Town. Think you know all the gory details of westward migration in the early 1860s? Pick up a copy of Janelle Moloney’s Emigrant Tales of the Platte River Raids. Does the name George Hearst ring a bell? Try Matthew Bernstein’s revelatory biography, George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age.

"The next generation of historians and authors have arrived and are tasked with leading this field of study forward in the decades to come. You may not always like our style, our taste in Westerns or actors, our perspectives, or the language some of us may use on occasion, but we’re not going anywhere. As one of the greatest voices of your generation, Bob Dylan, famously sang: The times they are a-changin’."

—James B. Mills

"Every generation thinks they are smarter than the last, and wiser than the next."

—Old Vaquero Saying

    Look who showed up on my art desk this morning. . .

Daily Whip Out: "Local Cowgirl Takes Off"

Meanwhile. . .

   We study him for awhile and we worship him, then we go the other way and despise him and vilify him and on it goes. . .

Daily Revised Whip Out:

"Jesse James Going In And Out of Focus"

   But he's still guaranteed to raise a smile. . .

"So let me introduce you to, the act you've known for all these years. . ."

—Lennon & McCartney, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band