Emulating Hell Boy & Others of The Hellbent Variety

 January 31, 2025

   Sometimes I like to study and emulate artists and cartoonists I admire. Here is one of those studies.

Daily Whip Out:

"Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp Leans Forward"

(emulating "Hell Boy" style cartooning)

Meanwhile, in Cedar City, Utah. . .

Daily Whip Out:

"Mormon Stake President Issac C. Haight"

"Do Your Duty!"

   If you have seen the Netflix series American Primeval you no doubt have questions in your mind as to how anyone who believes in Christian morality could have killed 120 men, women and children at Mountain Meadows, Utah on September 11, 1857. Well, here is Issac C. Haight's comment after the meeting in Ceder City, Utah, convened to deal with the Fancher wagon train before the massacre.

"I am prepared to feed to the Gentiles the same bread they fed to us. God being my helper, I will give the last ounce of strength and if need be my last drop of blood in defense of Zion."

^{—Issac C. Haight}

OKII: Shout-out at Scheiffelin Hall

 January 30, 2025

   Without a doubt, one of my favorite headlines we have ever run in the magazine happened wayyy back in the beginning before we settled in to a long tradition of excellent headlines.

   Here is the back story.

   Me and two crazy friends—McCubbin and Baish—bought True West magazine in the fall of 1999 and strapped in for a bumpy takeoff. A year later, we were all in Tombstone for a big showdown with two rival Earp camps which we styled as—The Barra Gang vs. The Boyer Gang, and it all hit the fan at Schieffelin Hall. We featured the shout-out and the aftermath in the magazine like this:

Opening spread of

Shout-out at Schieffelin Hall

   Aping the headline in the Tombstone Epitaph on October 27, 1881, one of our sub-heads reads:

Three Men Hurled Into Puberty

In The Duration of A Moment

   Truer words were never type-set for publication. If you want to know who those puberty-challenged writers are, get this back issue of True West—Feb-March 2001 but be forewarned, it is a true collector's item and issues will run you $300.

   If you don't have that kind of cash laying around, look for an upcoming issue of the Tombstone Epitaph where we will run a condensed version of this six-page classic.

"If both sides did as much research as they did badmouthing each other, we'd know a lot more about Wyatt Earp."

—Ben Traywick

Maynard Dixon And His Great Tucson Adobe

 January 29, 2025

   Just yesterday, I saw an Ansel Adams photograph of one of my painting heroes I had never seen before.

Maynard Dixon in his Tucson home

By Ansel Adams

   Besides being a stunning photo and a window into the artist's last days, it is significant because back in 2016, when we were at the Tucson Festival of Books we got to throw an author's party in this exact house. Here is a photo of me in the kitchen with the guy who set it up and my "agent."

Jeb Rosebrook, me and John Langellier

in the Maynard Dixon house in Tucson

   The agent tag was a joke because the late, great Jeb got me a gig at the Westerns Channel while pitching another project and ever since then he called himself my "agent." And, John Langelliere knows the people who own the house and he called in a favor, and man, oh man, was that a hoot-and-a-half!

   And, speaking of Dixon, this is one of the best blogs on Dixon I have ever done. Don't believe me, check it out.

The Wandering Lunatic

  As I advance in age, I get so irritated by click bait and come on headlines. That's why it's time for, Headlines I'd Like to See:

A GARAGE SALE PAINTING SOLD FOR $50—EXPERTS THINK IT COULD BE WORTH EVEN LESS

"Here I was in the midst of The Real Thing—my western world—and my mind was set to tell the truth of it on paper and canvas and that meant work. It meant constant observation and constant drawing."
—Maynard Dixon

Scottsdale In The Rearview And Nitpicking In The Netflix Queue

 January 28, 2025

   I had a long one in Scottsdale today. Drove down to introduce Calamity Jane (1953) at the Scottsdale Museum of the West. Had fun, drove back, fighting my way up Scottsdale Road. Had a taco at La Cocina, then picked up Uno at Doggy Daycare, and drove home, catching this late afternoon shot on Spur Cross Road. . .

New River Mesa all lit up!

   When we first went on the Copper Canyon Railway back in 1992, we were struck by the Tarahumara Indians in the area of Divisadero.

The Tarahumara

(They've got legs and they know how to use them)

Old postcard (1907?) from Chihuahua, Mexico. The Tarahumara are famous for their mountain long-distance running and endurance and these guys seem to be stripped for action at all times.

A Tarahumara Mama!

I Get Feedback On YouTube Videos

   "Mr. Bell is absolutely my hero. He is the absolute best and he speaks our language and can communicate with anyone wether young or old. Btw... I'm not a 'gun guy' either but the information I find here and learn from Mr. Boze and you guy's in the comments is absolutely fascinating and enlightening! Thank you 

Damning With Faint Praise

   Okay, I know I can be a little picky when it comes to watching a Western, especially with other people. That's why I love this quote:

"I enjoy watching an adaptation of something I've read, because I get to be the obnoxious guy going, 'No, no, they're combining these two characters, it's all wrong!' My wife loves it when I do that."

—Gary Gulman, the standup comedian, in The New Yorker, facetiously riffing on guys like me

More Sombrero Mountaintops, Our New Old West Savior & Brigham Young

 January 27, 2025

   Turns out there is more than one Mexican hat named mountain in the U.S.

Sombrero Peak in the Sierra Anchas

More Sombrero Geological Formations

   "Boze, You want a big sombrero? I’ll give you a big sombrero. How about Sombrero Peak in the Sierra Ancha mountains at 6,400 feet elevation?! That’d be north of the Salt River on the western edge of the Apache Res bordering the Tonto National Forest. Technically it’s in the res and one need a permit from the Apaches to climb it. I’ve been meaning to get up there for years. Lots of history and pre-history there. Name checked as well in the old cowboy song, 'The Crooked Trail to Holbrook.'"

—Greg Scott

We Have A New Old West Savior Columnist

   Jana Bommersbach wrote her first True West Savior column on Lynda Sanchez and now, Lynda is taking over the column for the late, great Jana. 

   BBB and Lynda at the Ellis Store,

Lincoln, New Mexico

Here are her bonafides. Since 1978, award winning author, historian and True West contributing editor, Lynda Sánchez, has been writing about the west. She lives with the ghosts of Billy and others on her ranch along the Rio Bonito in Lincoln, New Mexico.  Long an advocate for preserving the West she has written 6 books and over 400 articles.   Ms. Sánchez urges folks to send her success stories about saving/preserving the west.   diamondjnl@pvtn.net   Andale!

   We are researching all the films featuring Brigham Young to do the true story behind American Primeval and when I watched "Brigham Young" (1940) last night I was surprised to see a young Vincent Price playing Joseph Smith.

Vincent Price as Joseph Smith

in "Brigham Young," 1940

   As the story goes, the producer David O. Selznick commissioned a screenplay about the Mormon leader Brigham Young because of Selznick's alarm at the rising antisemitism in the late thirties. 

If you want to watch it, here it is:

"Brigham Young" (1940)

   The film was directed by Henry Hathaway who helmed seven Randolph Scott films, the John Wayne "True Grit" and many other Westerns. When he received his marching orders from Selznick, Henry reportedly said. . .

"Great! A movie about the two most boring subjects in the world: religion and wagon trains."

—Henry Hathaway

Mexican Hat, Utah & Cowboy Artist Mecca

 January 26, 2025

   I've seen some dust storms in my time, but this one takes the cake.

Daily Whip Out: "Crazycrack Dust Storm" 

  Best named outcropping in the lower 48?

Mexican Hat, Utah

My Mecca

   It took me a while to get there, but I finally did.

The Cowboy Artist Charlie Russell outside his studio in Great Falls, Montana. It took me almost two decades to get there and I arrived in a snowstorm in 1986, but I got out of the car and got down on my knees and genuflected in the snow to my painting hero. He means that much to all of us who love the authentic West.

Old Main in the middle of nowhere

(I think that's A Mountain in the background)

   My old school, I am proud to say, was partially paid for by two gamblers and a saloon owner in the Old Pueblo. I had two ROTC classes in the basement when that was mandatory (1965-67). We called it Old Main and I think they still do.

   Meanwhile, here's a cool shot I have never seen of Tombstone, Arizona in 1933.

Tombstone, looking up Fourth Street

and that's Schieffelin Hall on right,

two story building, 1933

   And, here's the same view, taken in October of 2000 by me on my way to OKII: the Showdown at Schieffelin Hall between Glenn Boyer's crew and Casey Tefertiller's crew.

Rainbow in the Dragoons

  It got ugly, and I covered it all. The showdown, not the rainbow.

"Rainbows are a promise of a better tomorrow, unless you are a bickering historian who hates anyone and everyone who might publish some inane fact before you do."

—Old Author Saying

Dust Tribute to Garth Hudson And The Latest In How to Wear Your Cowboy Jeans

 January 24, 2025

   Still jammin' on Rurales suspended in amber:

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales On The Ridgeline #19"

   And, yes, this one answers the question: what would Ed Mell do? Meanwhile I am still experimenting with dust effects:

Daily Whip Out: "Faint Face In Dust"

   Thanks to Barb Zimet who recognized who this really is: "That is Garth Hudson of The Band!" Funny how, just that tweak in the title gives it a pathos and impact far beyond the initial effect. Note to self: listen to Barb when it comes time to name artwork!

   I pride myself on being up to date on Western clothing styles, but I must have missed a meeting—or two!—on how to wear cowboy jeans.

Low Pants Vance: He Be Stylin' Ese!

   And, finally, if you ever wondered how Cave Creek got its name. here you go:

How Cave Creek Got Its Name

"For many people, the talents that bloom later in life are more consequential than the ones that bloom early."

—David Brooks

Winning On The Roundabouts

 January 23, 2025

   It's this guy's birthday today.

   And here's a quote for Thomas Charles on his 42nd birthday:

"No one hates winter like a guy with an El Camino in the garage."

—Old Car Guy Saying

   Yes, for a brief time, Tomas had an El Camino and somewhere I have a picture to prove it, but I couldn't find it this morning, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Kid Ross Memorialized

   This is a tintype of my amigo Kid Ross, taken last weekend. 

Kid Ross And His Fave Stuff

 

  As he puts it, "This is all my passions in one shot: Ned Kelly's helmet. Willie Mays' catch. Baseball bats. Two jars of old paint brushes. A 'murmillo' gladiator helmet. A steel raven. My Winchester .45 and behind me a lance and a harpoon. I'm holding the flintlock rifle I used in a documentary on Davy Crockett that I was in (the Alamo sequence!).  I'm also wearing a Custer shirt, my two .357's in a holster made for me using the same pattern as Jesse James had on his gun belt, and my 145 year old horse hair coat with my 'trail boss' hat, that Rusty gave me many years ago, perched on my head along with my favorite scarf. Also, the numbers on the back of Willie are reversed because this IS a tintype!"

   Speaking of famous tintypes, Kid Ross and I are planning a big Billy the Kid art show next fall to feature 20 of our best Billy paintings and a sculpture of the Kid Shrine that Buckeye Blake is finishing even as you read this.

    After our show in Scottsdale, the Kid Shrine will end up at the Fort Sumner Museum in Old Fort Sumner New Mexico sometime in 2026.

The Roundabout Reference

"I consider that I have been a fortunate woman and have had a happy life, by and large. I can survive tragedy, not through self-delusion but through acceptance. I accept. I don’t mean that I accept cruelty or hypocrisy or injustice. I accept whatever happens to me. What you lose on the swings you win on the roundabouts.”

—Helen Lawrenson, who wrote the infamous Esquire magazine piece, "Latins Are Lousy Lovers"

Heroes And Villains: Our Neverending Efforts at Finding The Truth

 January 22, 2025

  If you live long enough, as I have, you start to notice that the heroes of one era—Davy, Davy Crockett king of the wild frontier!—can teeter, or even be toppled, with newly discovered truths, or, more accurately, inconvenient truths that were swept under the rug in the previous telling of the tale. That is the overarching theme of our next couple of issues. It's all moving and chaotic and sometimes the more we know, the less we seem to understand. It's our job, at True West magazine to help you see through the fog. . .

   Or, as our contributing editor, and my favorite Punk Pastor Mark Boardman, puts it, "I like the punk band The Stranglers' take on things.  'Whatever happened to all the heroes.  All the Shakespearoes.  They watched their Rome burn.  No more heroes anymore...'" 

   Meanwhile, here is a sneak peek at a new poster Dan The Man and I have just created:

A big, 13"X 19" Triple B Poster

for your wall

   Success is resting on a rotisserie. It's all turning, even as you read this. So enjoy this temporary evaluation of the truth, as we see it today from our humble observation perch on the stormy decks of history.

"Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity."

—Carol Sagan

Charlie Goodnight Deserves A Giant Statue

 January 21, 2024

   I don't know about you, but this much I know to be true.

Daily Whip Out:

"Charlie Goodnight Deserves A Giant Statue"

   And, speaking of Charlie Goodnight's grave, Buckeye Blake informs me that cowboys from everywhere are leaving their scarves at Goodnight's gravesite, on the fence, as a testament to his worthiness. Here's an up and coming cowboy doing just that.

Luca Blake pays his respect to Goodnight

   Yes, Luca is Buckeye's grandson and we are going to feature this sweet phenom in the next issue.

"It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it."

—Seneca

Trail Hand Charlie Goodnight & Big Hats Galore

 January 20, 2025

   See, the problem with legendary Texan, Charlie Goodnight, is he left us no photos of himself as a cowboy and that is a cryin' shame. Almost all of his portraits are banker-fied. Suits, and not even a hat on! Yes, I know there are some photos of him late in life with a hat on, but damn, where's that unstoppable, young, hothead Trail Hand?

   That's why it's time for a little steely-eyed Kaboy, to honor the man who some believe was the original Landman.

Daily Whip Out:

"Trail Hand Charlie Goodnight"

   As my painting pard, Buckeye Blake put it, "That's our man for sure. I can hear his spurs from here."

   I'll take that to the bank.

Daily Whip Out:

"Charlie Goodnight Monument" 

   I did this second image of Goodnight for two reasons. One is we want to feature Charlie on the cover of True West and I also need a good cowboy statue to illustrate one of my favorite quotes:

"Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better."

—Studs Terkel

   Other than that, I've got a profound love for big, bad hats.

Big Hats Galore

Great shot of Emiliano Zapata (seated, center) and his crew, 1914. Almost proves the old vaquero saying, If everybody is wearing a big hat, ain't nobody wearing a big hat. Well, yes, except for that little Hijole in the top row in the puny straw.

"I never had a compass in my life, but I was never lost."

—Charlie Goodnight

Midnight Suprise & Marlon Brando Cops The Kid's Hat

 January 19, 2025

   Horses love this.

Daily Whip Out: "Midnight Suprise" 

  Still stuck in the dust.

Daily Whip Out: "Day of The Dusty Dead"

One Can Only Imagine

How did this punk kid end up with Billy the Kid's hat?

Marlon Brando, age 8

Resident Wise-Ass Answer:

"He made him an offer he couldn't refuse."

—James B. Mills

  Back to the crease. You see. the hat crease style out west in those far off days was to take an unblocked crown and give it a random bash with the edge of your palm, and that became the badge of authenticity, that broadcast to all those city folk that you didn't care about store bought creases.

That's about half right!

   "Don't get me started on that tie down!"

—Every Western Lover Who Ever Lived

The New Young Guns Are Gunning for Boomers Like Me

 January 18, 2025

   The ground is shaking, the earth is quaking, my mind is aching, and, well, if you're an AC/DC fan, you know the rest.

Daily Whip Out:

"Riders On The Dust Storm"

  There's a new group of riders coming this way and they are hell bent on fixin' all the stuff we have mismanaged and ruined. And by we I mean the dreaded Boomer Gang.

   When I was an underclassman at the University of Arizona (1966-68) a classmate commented that when we get in power the world will finally be fixed and the old, "corrupt" power guard—Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon!—will be relegated to the trash heap of history. Fast forward, and here is the sum total of my fellow Boomers who became president: George W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton and Donald J. Trump. All of them born a month apart in 1946, the same year I was born. Now I don't care what your political persuasion might be, but that is a mighty mixed bag of Boomer nuts. And, frankly, it sums up my generation's conceit to the T. And, so, here comes the next generation about to fix everything we screwed up.

   And so it goes.

   American Primeval has had 10,400,000 views in one week! Meanwhile, I am being lobbied from Down Under to do this cover:

James B. Mills sees this as the next cover

"Anything is much more believable, if it happens in the past."
—Richard Lester

Charlie Goodnight On The Range And American Primeval On The Deranged

 January 17, 2025

   I'm working on a cover image for old Charlie Goodnight. It's kind of amazing there aren't any photos of him as a young cowboy. Just a couple portraits of him looking like a bearded banker:

Charlie Goodnight, circa 1880

   And the above photo is apparently what the wardrobe and make up department used to fur out Taylor Sheridan when he played Goodnight in "1883".

Taylor Sheridan as Charlie Goodnight.

   Cool hat, but slightly modern. I wonder if the ol' boy maybe looked more like this?

Charles Goodnight Sketch #2

   Or, this?

Charles Goodnight sketch #3

   Kathy and I are on the fourth episode of American Primeval and I was talking to our movie editor, Henry Parke, about the equal, but incessant, brutality on the show. And, by "equal" I mean all races are equally deranged. We have an underaged Shoshone girl who steals a knife, goes home and a seemingly drunk Native American brute starts to get familiar with her and she stabs him in the neck and kills him while her mother stands by and seems upset that the girl has ruined their meal ticket. The overarching theme seems to be that we are all guilty of heinous crimes, no matter our race or gender and that is something new for Westerns. I asked Henry when this trend started, and here is his reply.

"I think this rush for the sordid started with Deadwood, which despite its virtues created the dubious impression that in the old west, every third word was cocksucker, and every third person was one. I give the show credit for temporarily jump-starting the genre, I loved the art direction, the performances, and I applaud David Milch for giving the Western a patina of 'cool' that it had long lacked." 

—Henry Parke

Dust Devil Forming A Cowboy Musical Intro Looming

 January 16, 2025

   Caught this dust devil forming up on Rockaway Hills yesterday. 

Dust Devil Forming In Horse Arena

   Very unusual for our neighborhood. The land is chopped up creek bottom (that's five of the Seven Sisters across the creek) so it's not the best recipe for the formation of these mini-twisters. 

Dust Devil Stage Two

(and there's six of the Seven Sisters)

   In fact, in all of the 38 years we've lived out here, this is the first one I recall seeing. Now, growing up in Kingman I would see three at a time for breakfast, cruising across Hilltop where we lived.

   Meanwhile, I got a request from my friends down at Scottsdale Museum of the West to introduce a few of their upcoming films. Here is a taste of the first films to play in the series:

1/27 @2PM Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

1/28 @2PM Calamity Jane  

1/29 @2PM Rhythm on the Range  

1/30 @2PM The Marx Brothers in Go West

1/31 @10AM An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

@1PM Disney’s Home on the Range  

2/1 @10AM Disney’s Home on the Range

@1PM  An American Tail: Fievel Goes West  

2/2 @2PM Oklahoma!

   When I responded that these Westerns were a tad outside my comfort zone, the Chief Curator sent me this reply:

"The world’s biggest stickler for historical accuracy in Westerns doesn’t like movies where the cowboys spontaneously burst into carefully coordinated song-and-dance numbers? I don’t believe it."

—Andrew Patrick Nelson, Chief Curator at Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West

I'm Stting On A Magazine Gold Mine

 January 15, 2025

   We are blessed to have such helpful and generous readers. Just got these in the mail today:

Four back issues of The West magazine

   Which prompted me to send this out today to our True West sales team:

Boo-koo Sales Potential!

   Thanks to a True West reader in Deming, New Mexico, named Paul Hoylen, we now have the complete ad sales client list for one of our arch competitors, circa 1969. I am passing along to you the best leads in the bunch. Good luck on landing these prestige accounts!

   Yes, you too can now "turn your hands, feet, fingers into super weapons almost like a sword!"​ Who among us wouldn't jump at the chance to sign up for these Best Values? Just for you, here are a couple more ads to poach from:

   It's so great to know that those 6 foot bull whips are made by "the Cherokee Indians" in Roslyn, New York, Division Mail Sack, Inc.

"It doesn't get any better than this."

—Old Ad Salesman Slogan

Have We Created A Cover Too Sexy for Our Readership?

 January 14, 2025

   If you want an old school look at the Old West stream The Searchers. If you want to see an extension of The Revenant where Hugh Glass fought a grizzly bear, watch the first episode of American Primeval on Netflix. Lots of my peeps are talking about it.

Daily Whip Out: "Evil In His Prime"

   It's no surprise this new series was penned by the guy who wrote The Revenant.

   Meanwhile, closer to home. . .

A Cover Too Sexy for Our Readership?

   Dan The Man and I came up with this bold little cover concept yesterday. . .

Sadie Earp In The Raw

   

   Dan and I love it, but our sales staff and the publisher are bridling over the overt sexiness of the message and they are afraid it doesn't say "Travel." It is, in fact, our "Travel" issue.

   Gee I wonder what a certain Mamacita—I know and respect—has to say about this?

"I would say I agree with your sales staff.  Also, when one gets anxious to make sales, one turns to SEX and the sordid for attention.  TW does not have to do that nor would you want to go there with such glaring headlines and even use of the word ‘sordid’.  Many people love the lady and the Earps so why offend them?  Unnecessarily?   A Travel issue is supposed to capture travel, wide open spaces, special places and not the bedroom."

—Lynda Sanchez, Lincoln, New Mexico Mamacita