More Bell Mell Sugarloafs

 May 31, 2025

Maybe twenty years ago, my old studio mate, Edmundo Mell visited me in Cave Creek.

Ed Mell at Rancho de los Caballeros

outside Wickenburg, Arizona

I took him up the ladder in my upstairs morgue area, opened the trapdoor and, on the roof top deck I showed him the Sonoran Desert vista to our north. He took a photo of the view which he later painted as "The Mountains of Cave Creek." This is a detail from that painting, a close up on Sugarloaf.

  Ed also took a photo of me up in the Crow's Nest, as we call it, and I used his photo on the back of my last Billy book:

Photo by Ed Mell

(looking north toward Sugarloaf

from the Crow's Nest)

  Recently, I realized my obsession with the Sonoran vaquero hat style—and, or, the mountain butte version—would be a cool logo for my Western stories.

Sugarloaf Suprema

Daily Whip Out: "Sugarloaf Logo #7"

  And, by the way, the hat style and the butte monikers take their name from the shape of a loaf of sugar, which was created in the form of a rounded cone, the most common way of distributing sugar until the late 19th century.

An actual sugarloaf

In Other Loafing News

Someone I know who really despises my artwork called me a "childish finger painter" and just to prove that point, here is my art desk this morning before I cleaned it:

Daily Whip Out:

"Master Finger Painter"

"Green-eyed lady, passion's lady
Dressed in love, she lives for life to be
Green-eyed lady feels life I never see
Setting suns and lonely lovers free. . ."

—Sugarloaf, 1970

How The Buckeye Blake Wake Project Finally Happened

 May 30, 2025

   Perhaps you are curious about how Buckeye Blake's "cryptic" defeat in Old Fort Sumner turned into a win for all of us who love history.

   Here's the backstory.

   After Buckeye struck out with the Chamber folk in Old Fort Sumner, back in 2014, a new Chamber of Commerce president arrived on the scene. 

Daily Whip Out:

"Mexican Mourners for The Kid"

   Her name is Mary Ann Cortese and when she heard about the Buckeye Blake wake concept, she took up the banner and championed it relentlessly. She brought in Mayor Louis Gallegos and the entire city council, who then approached Tim Roberts at the State of New Mexico about collaborating on something that would honor the Kid without opening old controversies. This is a key line on anything involving BtK in New Mexico: "without opening old controversies."

   Good luck with that one! But, I digress. 

   This led to an interpretive exhibit concept floated by Tim Roberts who brought on his brother Billy Roberts along with Scott Smith and the late Drew Gomber to develop the concept. They, in turn contacted me and I worked with Dan The Man Harshberger on creating a courtyard view capturing the moment when the Kid walked across the parade ground, along the picket fence and on the way to his doom.

Daily Whip Out: "The Midnight View"

(A night at the museum)

  This is my sketch of the three walls in the portico of the museum leading to a facsimile of the Maxwell porch and into Pete Maxwell's bedroom.

And here is a video of the room in question:

The Midnight Men

   Three lawmen come in from the south. They have taken the back trails and now they slip silently onto Pete Maxwell's south porch. While one of them goes inside, the two deputies crouch in the gate and spy a lone figure walking towards them in the moonlight. He is buttoning his trousers.

   Dan took these images and pieced together a wall montage that museum goers will walk through on their way to view Buckeye's sculpture. We wanted you to see what the Kid saw on his last walk. Here is our rough of that concept.

Three walls on the way to Maxwell's bedroom

Designed by Dan Harshberger

(this is actually looking back at the door you will enter, which is where the Death Riders are)

 The city then pursued and won grant money to fund the project. Buckeye's sculpture will be unveiled at the Graveside Museum in the spring of 2026.

   In the meantime you will be able to see all of this artwork, including the sculpture, on the Traveling Wake of Billy the Kid Art Show in the following locations (this is a tentative list and more locations may be added):

The Lamy Church, in Lamy, New Mexico, on July 4, 2025. At the Raton Museum on August 23 and at the Scottsdale Museum of the West on October 3rd.

"Be there or be square."

—Old Beatnik Saying

More Tales From The Crypt Featuring Billy the Moron!

 May 29, 2025

   Here's more insight into the crypt of Billy the Kid madness from that video interview Ken Amorosano did with Buckeye back in 2014. It has been edited from the transcripts for clarity.

Buckeye Gives Us What For

   "It all starts with that only known photo of Billy the Kid. He is standing there with a rifle, right? That’s what everyone’s seen from the start—old newspaper clippings, whatever. But even when that photo was first taken, they doctored it. Tried to fix it right out of the gate. They botched it. It was badly done. So instead of seeing this smart little Irish kid, America saw a moron. 

Billy The Moron

Just one of numerous botched drawings

from the only known photo.

Don't believe me? Okay, how about this one?

Noah H. Rose "Retouched" Billy

1920s

Dumb & Dumber Billy

1964

"Billy the Kid," by David William Cale

Wichita Art Museum

David E. and Vivian L. Bernard Print Collection.

   "And that’s what stuck. 'Dirty little Billy killer.' 'Look at him—he’s a moron.' Well, that was total B.S. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, right then I thought, oh my God, an entire country got fed this false picture. Doesn’t matter if it’s important or not—it’s American history. Western history. It’s valid. You don’t have to be proud of it, but it’s there. And that kid was not a moron. So, I got into it. Read everything I could. Turns out he was really likable. A good-looking young Irish kid.
There was this whole other side nobody talks about. All the Mexicans held him in high esteem—he was their guy—a folk hero—and none of that shows up. It's  just, 'Oh, he was some dirty outlaw.' So that got me thinking: what was he really like? Why’d he become who he was? And all those little misfortunes and accidents—niche things that shaped the guy. That’s what intrigued me and that's what set me out on this path."

—Buckeye Blake

Special thanks to James B. Mills for finding the extra dumb and dumber Billys. I thought I had seen them all, but nooooooo. . .

"I knew history could be ugly, but dang dude, those bad Billys take the cake."

—Old History Guy Who Thought He Had Seen It All

The Resurrection of Billy the Kid: The Dead End Is Rescinded

 May 28, 2025

   Who exactly was the finger painter who declared he had spoken his "final word" on Billy the Kid?

J.W. (BBB) Bell and Billy Bonney

at The back door of the Lincoln County Courthouse in 1991, 110 years after you-know-damn-well what happened.

Dead End Again

   The Kid backs into Pete Maxwell's bedroom. Garrett, engulfed in the darkness, freezes. "He came directly towards me," Garrett recounted. "Came close to me."

   Garrett said he dared not speak because his own gun was in its holster, and he was sitting on it!

   "He came close to me, leaned both hands on the bed, his right hand almost touching my knee."

   "The Kid must have seen, or felt, the presence of a third person at the head of the bed. He raised his pistol, a self-cocker, within a foot of my breast."

   The Kid jumped back, but instead of firing, he demanded in Spanish one more time, "Quien es?"

"Quien es, Pete?"

   Big mistake.  Garrett drew his revolver and fired twice.

   "The Kid fell dead. He never spoke. A struggle or two, a little strangling sound as he gasped for breath, and the Kid was with his many victims."

   Thus ends the sheriff of Lincoln County's version of the events in Pete Maxwell's bedroom in the early hours of July 15, 1881.

   So, what, pray tell, is the reason for revisiting all of this for the eighteenth-hundred time when I recently claimed I had written my final word on the subject?

Finally, A Fitting funeral for Billy the Kid!

   We all know the Kid was put in the ground with modest fanfare. "Practically every man, woman, and child in town followed the body to the little cemetery," remembered Paulita Maxwell. Okay, but that is still roughly only about 170 souls, certainly not the crowd Billy deserved then, or now. It has been Buckeye Blake's dream to fix that, to make it right for the Kid with a show of proper respect and honor.

   Several local hispano women begged Garrett to allow them to remove the body, which he did. Jesus Silva and a couple others carried the Kid's slender body to the old carpenter shop across the parade ground, near the quartermaster's corral and placed Billy on a sturdy workbench. The fatal exit wound was plugged with a rag (it did not bleed out until two hours after the shooting perhaps from the jostling) A clean shirt was produced from Pete Maxwell that was too large. The women prepared the body for a wake, placing lighted candles all around his lifeless body while several Fort Sumner residents, both men and women kept a quiet vigil over their friend's body.

   A hastily held coroner's jury led by Alcalde Alejandro Seguro and ordered by Pat Garrett viewed the body of Billy Bonney in the carpenter's shop to confirm the cause and manner of death.

   Jesus Silva constructed the coffin and then he and Vicente Otero dug a grave in the old post cemetery.

After Billy's body was placed in his coffin, it was moved to Beaver Smith's saloon, where it remained until time for burial. The funeral took place in the afternoon. Garrett gave Pedro Maxwell $25 to get some proper clothing for the dead boy.

 Otero used his wagon to transport the body from the saloon to the graveyard and almost everyone in the small community followed the procession.

   The next day, a marker made of a stave from the picket fence he walked by the night before, was placed at the head of the grave. The marker had no last name or date, just the words, "Billy the Kid."

   And, that was the end of that.

   Or, was it?

   Eleven years ago, in 2014, Buckeye Blake wanted to give the Kid a proper graveside crypt and he went to the powers that be in Fort Sumner and they flat turned him down. As he put it in an interview with Ken Amorosano back in 2014: "It didn't go over well. They didn’t know what a crypt lid was. Thought I was part of the forensic crowd who wanted to dig up Billy. And then you’ve got the religious side—sanctity of the dead. Plus, the locals—Mexican families especially—held the Kid in high esteem. He was their hero. They weren’t gonna let just anybody mess with him. 'We don’t want dead people in our cemetery,' they said. I told them, 'Well, most of them live there already.'"

   And so, Buckeye went home to Texas and destroyed his clay sculpture.

Buckeye Blake sadly gave up the quest

   But, believe it, or not, that was then, and Buckeye's old idea has been dusted off and approved by a new set of crypt keepers in Fort Sumner! What was dead has been resurrected. Both the outlaw and Buckeye's project. 

   And now do you understand why this is the cover we need right now?

   And, now do you get why this is the art show honoring the wake of Billy the Kid that we need as well? Especially from the guy who claimed he had uttered his final word on the subject.

A proper send off for Billy the Kid

"Everything comes to the man who is patient—and stubborn!"

—Old Vaquero Saying

Sugarloafs Galore

 May 26, 2025

   Walking solves almost everything. I get my best ideas while walking.

Uno with Sugarloaf in the background

   Yes, this is a very familiar landscape in my neighborhood which I see every morning.

Where Elephant Butte, New River Butte

and Sugarloaf collide.

   This got me to thinking. Remember the old Coors logo with the Colorado Butte on it?

   I kind of dig that old school etching look and have been playing around with a logo for a new kind of Western.

A detail from "Mountains of Cave Creek"

 by Edmundo Mell

Daily Whipouts: "Sugarloaf Sketches"

   More to come.

"Say no to generative AI art. Buy art from real degenerates."

—Old Artist Saying

Storm Over Sugarloaf & Feisty Females & Las Tules Ain't Clueless

 May 25, 2025

   Got a new logo idea about a hat style and a butte to the north of us.

Daily Whip Out: "Storm Over Sugarloaf"

   Actually there are lots of outcroppings in the Southwest named "sugarloaf" because, well, it resembles a loaf of Mexican sugar and also the hatstyle we all love. Logo to come when Dan The Man returns.

  Funny what we remember. The late, great Jana Bommersbach and I wanted to celebrate as many of the western women who lived up to the adage, "Well behaved women seldom make history." So, here's a taste from our co-authored book, "Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real Women of The Wild West." Can you name them?

Daily Whip Outs:

"A Long Line of Feisty Females"

   Meanwhile, here's another of my fave femmes from the book.

Daily Whip Out:

"Las Tules Shows Her Hand"

(plus a peek at some other fine attributes!)

"Never gamble with a female dealer who shows you her cards."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Look Out for These Loco Gatos

   Got a big art show coming up with these crazy bastards.

Kid Raven, BBB and Buckeye

at Due West Art Gallery in Santa Fe

"Every successful pendejo you admire survived a season you didn't see."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Did Wyatt Earp Show Up At Wyatt Earp Days In Tombstone Today?

 May 24, 2025

   Imagine if your name was Wyatt Earp and you decided to go to Tombstone this weekend for Wyatt Earp Days. What do you think the reaction might be?

Wyatt Earp, age 76

"I don't know. Mayhem?"

Wyatt Earp III, age 76, at the True West booth

on Allen Street in Tombtone, Arizona

(Photo by Rob Mathiasch)

   Yes, Wyatt Earp III is a real life relative of the first guy, above. And it was this Wyatt who took the photo of the Renegades on Allen Street in 1995.

   Ah, yes, the circle of life.

Our Man On The Ground Steve Todd With Wyatt Earp III

(in Tombstone, on Allen Street)

"You talk too much for a fighting man."

—Wyatt Earp

Vaqueros Con Mucho Indios Influence Plus Billy the Kid Wore His Gun All Wrong!

 May 23, 2025

   According to a story I read somewhere, many moons ago Country Rocker Joe Ely went out of his way to go to Fort Sumner, New Mexico to take in the Billy the Kid grave museum and apparently he wasn't all that thrilled with the place. This led to him writing the following song:

Joe Ely's Take On Billy the Kid

   What I especially love about this tune is the nitpicking by the singer, "I didn't like the way he tied his shoes and he wore his gun all wrong" which is a total indictment of me and all my friends who obsess on these very things!

   And, speaking of obsessing on things.

   When I finally get around to publishing my stories on Mexican vaqueros, the Sonoran Indios are going to get mucho credit. Without them, there would be no Mexican food as we know it, and without them there would not be any sugarloaf sombreros (Bigger, broader, I want it mucho grande!). But what is ironic to me is they never totally gravitated to the boot. When you look at old vaquero photos closely you will be surprised to see that under their leggings (botas?) they are often wearing sandals! Hell, here's an Indio who can't even be bothered with pants!

Indios Sans Botas!

(y nada pantaloons!)

 

   And, is that a tattoo on the inside of his right leg?

   Okay, here is another Sonoran Bad Boy.

   And, is he wearing sandals underneath those botas?

Sandals? Or, what? Lizard Skin Shoes?

      Okay, what does all of this mean?

Daily Whip Out: "Old Vaquero In Dust"

"I can see by your outfit you are mucho Indio."

—Old Vaquero Saying

And Now Here's Another Episode of Cover My Ass

 May 22, 2025

   Nothing creates more controversy at True West magazine than arguing about covers. Here are two proposed versions of our next cover designed by Dan The Man:

Cover #1

Cover #2

   And, here for you reading pleasure are some of the sincere and smartass responses from our staff and contributing editors:

"The first one. It's more colorful, and has less horror movie vibes."

—James B. Mills

"I like the new one. #2"

—John Fusco

"I think the first image is the more appealing of the two, but I'm not sure if the 2nd might make someone more likely to pick it up and take a closer look, and it does match the headline better. And headline-wise, I'd rather be optimistic: how about YOUNG GUNS III IS FINALLY GONNA HAPPEN!"

—Henry Parke

   "The corpse is creepy and different, and it fits the headline. The horse is colorful and what readers are used to seeing. So ... will creepy and different turn off more potential buyers or will it attract them and new readers? Will colorful and the expected grab their attention or will they think, Nothing new here? You never know. That's why I never ask for cover approval on my novels. If I don't ask, then I can blame the publisher for putting a bad cover on an awesome book. It was the cover, not my writing, that killed those sales! That's my non-answer, and I'm sticking to it. Good luck."

—Johnny D. Boggs

"First one is obvious and more appealing.  Second is creepy and interesting.  So I'll do a Boggs and say, 'Good luck!'" 

—Mark Boardman

"The first one is a great cover, but it’s not really any different from your other great covers. The bottom will get more attention on the newsstand, and, I believe, sell better." 

—Mark Lee Gardner

Not So Faded Love

 May 21, 2025

     When accosted with an unflattering accusation she always asks the same question. 

Daily Whip Out: "Says Who?!"

  As some of you may know, I can't leave well enough alone.

Daily Whip Out: "Peekaboo Number 2"

   And for those of you who enjoy scandal, well, here you go.

Daily Whip Out: "Mrs. Scandalous"

"It takes a long time to sound like yourself."

—Miles Davis

Long Live Faded Photographs & Faded Youth

 May 20, 2025

   Ever since I was just a tyke reading True West magazine, I have always loved old, faded photographs. Perhaps that's why I often emulate the phenom in my sketch books.

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Beauty"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Love"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Bushwhacker"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Warrior"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Glory"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Resolve"

Daily Whip Out: "Faded Haggler"

Daily Whip Out: "Flag Day"

"Faded photograph
Covered now with lines and creases
Tickets torn in half
Memories in bits and pieces
Traces of love long ago
That didn't work out right
Traces of love. . ."

—Classics IV, "Traces (of Love)"