What's With All The Old Vaqueros Smirking?

 November 10, 2026

   I have been blessed more by the things I didn't get that I thought I wanted, than almost anything else.  

   But, I digress. 

Daily Whip Out: "Fire On The Ridgeline"

Daily Whip Out: "Old Vaquero Smirk"

Daily Whip Out: "Old Vaquero Smirk II"

Daily Whip Out: "Old Vaquero Smirk III"

  Yes, I admit I have been kind of obsessed with smirks lately.

Wyatt Earp Smirks at All The Smirking

"The difference between a banjo and a guitar is, the banjo has a round pot with a skin head that helps project the sound forward, and the guitar can get you laid."

—Steve Martin

Cart Before The Horse And Other Painting And AI Anomolies

 November 9, 2026

   Sometimes I write myself into a corner, as in, I name the art before I do it.

Daily Whip Out: "Head In The Sand"

Daily Whip Out:

"Downstream From A dream"

Daily Whip Out: "Jazzy Yazzie"

Capturing The Scene: Exhibit A

   One of the challenges Rooster Rob and I are having is how to create an authentic background for a historic event without looking too AI-ish.

Screen grabs of The Auditorium Hotel

   And, here is what Rooster Rob came up with, and I added some of my brushwork and it's not a bad scene setter for Wyatt Earp In The Last Outlaw Town.

“If people only knew as much about painting as I do, they would never buy my paintings.”

—Sir Edwin Henry Landseer

Bad Company I Won't Deny

 November 7, 2026

   I'm working with Rooster Rob on manhandling ChatGPT into providing us with a decent look (less mechancial) for my upcoming Graphic Cinema narrative: Wyatt Earp In The Last Outlaw Town. Here is a good example. Wyatt Earp under arrest outside the Auditorium Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on July 22, 1911.

Daily Digital Whip Out: "Wyatt In Cuffs"

   Scary, huh.

   It ain't AI and it ain't BBB but it's somewhere in between A & B. Hee hee.

Daily Archive Whip Out: "Bad Girl"

"It is easy to say she was bad, but there is little meaning unless we know why."

—John Steinbeck, on his bad girl Cathy in East of Eden

Phony Fellini's 8 1/2 vs. Wyatt Earp's Flood Dud

 November 6, 2026

   I've been watching a few classic movies in the evening and this was one of them.

Fellini's 8 1/2

   I didn't know this, but the number with the fraction refers to the amount of films he had done up to that point in his career. Get it? Eight-and-one-half. Typical cartoonist humor and, in fact, yes, he was from my tribe. Didn't know that either.

Marcello Mastroianni plays Fellini, as a film director who fears he is a phony. So he has Claudia Cardinale tell him as much.

   I can relate.

   What I would pay to call a number and get a live person answer the phone! I have been trying to make a doctor's appointment after an ER visit last Tuesday which turned out to be a kidney stone. But the pain of that encounter—and it was excruciating—pales against the layers of Phone Hell that are currently smothering any kind of doctor's visit.

   Another sneak peek at our next Tombstone Epitaph doubletruck which is almost ready to go to the printer.

The Flood Dud

   Sadie Earp got it in her head that she and Wyatt were going to get a big payday for his life story and she had two prerequisites for the story: it had to be clean and the story had to have "zip." To write up this cash cow, the Earps tasked their friend and mining engineer John Flood to write it all up. Every Sunday they met at the Earp's rented bungalo in LA and after many sessions they produced a 348 page bloated piece of pap. They even had their friend, Tom Mix, send an endorsement to the Saturday Evening Post, but there were no takers. The Flood Manuscript was a complete dud. Which proves one thing: a good engineer can save a structure, but a bad writer can't save a good story.

The Cave And the surrounding ridges are soaked with Rainwater and look at that lush growth in the foreground!

"The monster doesn't see a monster in the mirror."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Humor Is Sometimes Found In Who You Marry

 November 5, 2026

   So I was going off on how weird some of our friends are and I noticed that Kathy wasn't joining in the fun, so I asked why she was being so reticent and she said:

"Who am I to talk, I married a drummer."

—Kathy Radina

The Rough Layout of Our Next Tombstone Epitaph Feature

November 4, 3036

    Here's a sneak peek at the next Tombstone Epitaph Doubletruck. Rebecca Edwards and I work on these whenever time permits and we are about half done with this one:

Daily Whip Outs: "The Taciturn Reply"

Daily Whip Outs:

"An Overview of The Crazy Contradictions of Wyatt Earp's Life

   As a lawman he served valiantly and honorably—some would say exceptionally well, but it is his checkered career on the other side of the ledger that almost defies gravity. Horse theft? Check. Claim jumping? Check. Attacking a police officer? Check. Spousal abandonment? Check.  And, believe it or not, it gets worse. Marked cards and a fake name? How low can a hero of the American frontier go? Pretty damn low.

A Myth to Beat The Band

"It does beat the band how the truth will be warped and misstated over the years."

—Wyatt Earp in a letter to William S. Hart

Vincent van Gunfighter Meets Rio Sonora Bacanora

 November 3, 2026

   After True West where am I going? Back to my first love:

   Some of my strange, little limited editions are still out there appreciating in value. Case in point:

An Online Review And Explanation
   Vincent van Gunfighter is a scarce, limited‑edition graphic novella by Arizona historian and artist Bob Boze Bell, blending Western humor, history, and original scratch‑board illustrations.
   Published in 2016 by Santo Press—The Cattletrack Boys, Mark and Brent in Scottsdale, Arizona, Vincent van Gunfighter is a 24‑page, handmade, string‑tied, unmarked, unblemished collector’s item. It is a limited edition of 100 copies, each signed and numbered by Bell, and includes four additional 9¼" × 6½" signed and numbered relief prints created on scratchboard.
   The work is a satirical, historical pastiche that reimagines the life of Vincent van Gogh as a Wild West gunfighter, weaving in references to figures like Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, and Jesse James.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"Vincent van Gunfighter"

(note the missing earlobe)

   Besides effective scratchboards, very little makes me happier than Rio Sonora Bacanora. 

   Why? Because it rolls off the tongue and on the tongue and down the throat. Poetry either way. Thanks to my Elgin supplier, Greg Scott.

"Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed."

—Joseph Campbell

The Scariness of AI Is Upon Us

 November 2, 2026

   Well, it has been coming for some time now, but it appears AI is this close to replacing—or permanently perverting—our most treasured photographs. 

Wyatt Earp Smirks Demonically

(GROK photo created by Randie Lee O'Neal)

   It's still not perfect, but I think it's safe to say we are within sight of the "Game Over" sign in the authentic photo department. What will this do to the field of photo collecting? Or, worse yet, the authenticity of old photos? One thing is certain, it will muddy our view of the past. Granted, most of us in the history business can still spot the fakes, but what happens when we leave the stage and all the photos look equally valid?

"It's like an invasion of Glenn Boyers."

—Mark Boardman, editor of The Tombstone Epitaph

Wavers And Other Miscreants

   I just read about "chronological snobbery" which is the assumption—coined by C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield in the mid‑20th century—that ideas, beliefs, or works from earlier periods are inferior simply because they are old. All of which makes this little dittie even more zany:

Three Art Shows I Am Prepping Even As You Read This

1. The Duke of Dust

2. The Old Vaquero Sayings

3. Real Wild Women of The Real Wild West

   Two of them are scheduled at major museums in Arizona. The other one will be named later.

"History is nothing more than a dream. Those who made it dream things that never happened; those who study it dream of things past; those who teach it dream that they own the truth."

—Rodolfo Usigli, El Gesticulador

The Rancher's Daughter And The Dust of A Ducati

 November 1, 2026

   Rained all night and still raining off and on Sunday afternoon. We are considering changing the name of our street to Lake Drive.

Uno Catches A Wave Home

   Kathy tried to go to Jazzercise but turned back because the washes were running bank to bank.

   Last night marks the fortieth year without a Trick Or Treater at our house. That says more about where we live than anything.

Daily Revised Whip Out:

"The Rancher's Daughter"

   Grabbed a couple semi-finished whip outs and added another pass.

Daily Whip Out: "Dust of A Ducati"

   This is a very clever tease. Great posed picture.

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.”

—James Watkins

Drenched And The Memory of A Great Neighbor

 October 31, 2026

   Uno and I got out on the road at our usual time this morning. I noticed a big, fat storm front off to the south but I thought it was far enough away for us to make it up and back with ease.

An Ominous Storm Front Rolling In

   As we approached the halfway point, just below Rockaway Hills, I looked off to the right and saw the coming deluge rolling towards us, but I didn't panic because I knew there was an empty house at the top of the hill and we could easily slip onto the covered porch and escape being drenched. Big mistake. Soon enough, fat sprinkles gave way to a downpour, which quickly gave way to a deluge and I rather quickly realized two things: a palo verde tree doesn't stop much precipitation and two, you can run pretty fast when you are being soaked to the bone.

Lake Bev

   I call this Lake Bev after my late, great neighbor Bev Whitlow who is still giving me shelter after she is gone!

Bev's Porch In The Rain

   Note the green barber chair just beyond the table, which is where Bev cut my hair for the past two decades and where we caught up on all the Cave Creek news and neighborhood gossip. Loved that girl.

Beverly Whitlow

(1948-2026)

    And here's a bit of saucy humor that Bev would have loved.

"It actually doesn't take much to be considered a difficult woman, that's why there are so many of us."

—Jane Goodall

I Talk Too Much for A Fighting Man

 October 30, 2026

   Working on the script for my last YouTube video which we are taping today at noon. I'm noodling this punchline: But then, what do I know? I talk too much for a fighting man.

A Conundrum: A Rock 'N' Roll Cartoonist

Meets The Conservative Historian

   The inspiration comes from the Wyatt Earp quote: "Ike, you talk too much for a fighting man." And on our long car trip down to Tombstone and back last weekend, Rob Mathiasch and I were riffing on all things O.K. Corral and Rob at one point said facetiously, "I talk too much for a fighting man," and it got a big laugh from me, but then I realized that is what almost all of us who worship at the statue of Wyatt Earp really feel deep down inside. On some primal level we're all scared little boys.

   Just saw a concert poster and it had what I assume are new band names?

• Billy King And The Bad, Bad, Bad

• The Tobasco Brothers

• Los Pinche Gringos!

   I don't know about you, but those are some pretty damn groovy band names right there.

Favorite Onion Headline de Jour
Great-Grandmother Actually Not That Great

"Damn the thunder, must I blunder

there's no wonder all I'm under

Stop your crying and the lying

And the sighing and my dying

Sail On, Sail On, Sailor"

—The Beach Boys

What Is The First Movie to Feature The So-called Gunfight at The O.K. Corral?

 October 27, 2026

   When Stuart Lake finally caught up with Wyatt Earp in Los Angeles in August of 1928, he found a taciturn, old man, who seemed to answer every question with one of three replies: "Yep." "Nope." "Don't recall." And then after a couple interviews, Earp up and died (January of 1929). Perfect for a writer! Now he could have him say so much more. And, Boy Howdy, did Lake ever do that!

   The back story of Sadie trying to sell Hollywood on Wyatt's story is painful and pathetic. Bordering on clownish. But the aging soiled dove did score some points in the final making of the legend.

So When Did the Turn Begin?

   Stuart Lake is the one who turned the tide in 1931 with the publication of "Frontier Marshal" (it's a little ironic that Lake wanted "Frontier Gunfighter" as the title, but Sadie would not have it). Prior to this, Wyatt Earp was primarily known in the press as a "Gun Man" not as a lawman. And the O.K. Corral incident was more often than not described as the "Earp-Clanton feud," as in the Hatfield & McCoys embroglio. So Lake's prose and Sadie's restraint helped create the stalwart lawman we know today.

   Oh, and there was one other development that finally sealed the deal. In 1927 the first official gangster film, Underworld, depicted the rise and fall of a Chicago mobster and it did very good box office. 

   As Mark Cousins points out in his ten part series, The History of Cinema, in the first Westerns, the town—society—is just being born. In gangster movies, the town, the city, is dying. The world is dark. No one remembers the law being made. 

   In the early thirties, we get The Public Enemy, Little Caesar and Scarface. This was during the Prohibition era when urban crime landed in the public spotlight, and now the Earp story was finally ready for its close-up and with Law & Order the Wyatt Earp story finally landed. And, it had legs, as they say.

Law & Order, 1931

The first film to feature the so-called Gunfight at The O.K. Corral

“It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.”
—Old Vaquero Saying

Halfway In The Walls Started Talking

 October 28, 2026

   I grew up playing around the dark boulders in the Cerbat Range. We played Guns all over them in and around the ridges on Hilltop, outside of Kingman, Arizona.

Railroad Pass With The Hualapais Behind

(across the street from my dad's gas station)

   So it makes perfect sense that when I start drawing random boulders in a slot canyon, all those youthful experiences come into play.

Daily Whip Out:

"Halfway In, The Walls Started Talking"

   What did they say? Well, that is a story for another day.

   Well, okay, here's a snippet:

   "You got a lot of nerve coming in here with some lame parable concept on your mind."

"People can only take parables fully clothed with flesh."

—John Steinbeck, referring to his classic East of Eden

Onion Headline You Need to See

 October 27. 2026

   I ride herd on these timely headlines so you don't have to:

Man Puts Glass of Water On Bedside Table In Case He Needs to Make Huge Mess In Middle of Night

—The Onion

   Great to be home. Worked on this today.

Daily Revised Whip Out:

"Agatha Peak In Dust Storm"

   And this.

Daily Unfinished Whip Out:

"Slot Canyon In Progress"

Cheesy, Big & Breezy

   I had the honor and privilege to speak at the Clyne Ranch Campout last weekend. I spoke in the barn and we had some fun.

   Afterwards Alisa Clyne took this shot of me and Roger holding up a posterized album cover which I produced the art for.

Band Homies On The Clyne Ranch

   Oh, and the Clynes gifted me the Carthart coat for speaking in the barn. Ain't that a heart warming gift.

   One more for the road (which I am retiring from!):

Local Dad's Been On A Parenting Kick Lately

—The Onion

More On Burning Bridges And The Infamous P Commission Photo

 October 26, 2026

   On this semi-religious O.K. day let me clarify what is going on regarding the Burning Bridges Tour. I am retiring from public speaking at the end of this year but I am still going to contribute to True West magazine, publish my work and write my blog. I still love the history talking part of the gig, but I am done with the traveling to get to the gig part. I won't miss that! For example, I drove to Kingman the weekend before last, which is a 380 mile round trip, and this weekend I traveled 400 miles to speak in Tombstone (special thanks to my driver, Rob Mathiasch). The driving part has lost its charm, but my love for roadside dining remains.

Daily Whip Out:

"Burning Bridges Part II"

   When I began speaking in Schieffelin Hall last Saturday I admitted this was one of the last stops on my Burning Bridges Tour and somehow that freed me up from being so formal and with that freedom in mind, I told the back story on the famous P Commission photo, which took place less than a 100 yards from where we were meeting.

How I Got Banned from Arizona Highways

   I wrote a dumb caption and it cost me dearly. In my defense I wrote the caption at two in the morning when I was sleep deprived and buggy. The cutline was under a photo of Hugh O'Brian in the first edition of "The Illustrated Life & Times of Wyatt Earp" (1993). In the photo Hugh is holding a Buntline Special with that extra long barrel. And in the caption, I dictated this to my production manager, Julie Sigwart: "In his other holster he has a normal length penis." We laughed and laughed, like overworked, graphics zombies tend to do towards morning on a pending deadline. Like an idiot, I let it go to the printer with that little salacious adlib. In my defense, it seemed harmless at the time. Fast forward to the Glenn Boyer Wars when the controversial Wyatt Earp scholar went to war with what he called the "Fairy Patrol" and that would be Jeff Morey, Allen Barra, Casey Tefertiller and, by extension, myself. We were questioning his scholarship and he was not amused. Meanwhile, a former bounty hunter had moved to Tombstone and took up the Boyer cause and, in a dirty tricks kind of move, he called Arizona Highways who had been carrying my Wyatt book in their store and he quoted the caption and threatened to sue them for disseminating pornography. I then got a call from the publisher of Highways apologizing, but he said that they were dropping my book.

   In May of 1995 a bunch of us were in the Crystal Palace Saloon in Tombstone and our IQs were shooting through the roof when I looked over and saw the bounty hunter come into the saloon. The Arizona Republic had done a piece on him (last name Burton) and I recognized him immediately. I debated confronting him and demurred but after about thirty minutes I saw him head for the door and impulsively I followed him out onto the dark boardwalk. I shadowed him halfway down Allen Street and finally I called out his name, and he stopped and turned. I walked up to him and introduced myself. He was a short stocky guy and he bristled, but stood his ground. There was a tense stand off, but then several of my renegade compadres came out to check on me and he was surrounded. I told him I didn't appreciate the chickenshit tactics and he told me pretty much the same. With that we parted and he walked off and we went back to the Tombstone Boarding House to go to bed. Looking back I knew I was lucky. It's pretty safe to say, the guy was armed and if I had tried anything, he would have pulled iron.

"Ike, you talk too much for a fighting man," said Wyatt Earp to Ike Clanton on the same stretch of boardwalk on the evening of October 25, 1881.

   In the morning, we had a good laugh about it and I said I wanted to take a photo of all the Renegades, on the exact spot where the semi-confrontation took place. And, that is the Cliff Notes version of how the below photo came into being.

The Penis Commission Photo

   Taken on the Exact Spot in Front of Hatch's Saloon on Allen Street in Tombstone.

Left to right, back row: Bob McCubbin, Jim Dunham, Robert Palmquist and Jeff Morey. Front row: Allen Barra, Paul Northrop, Casey Tefertiller and BBB

Photo by Wyatt Earp (no, really!)

   And, of course, the title is a take off on the famous Wyatt Earp photo of him and Bat and his cronies in Dodge City:

The Peace Commission Photo

   Well, I have never told that story in public, but on Saturday in Schieffelin Hall, I was feeling saucy and loose as a goose and so I did just that. Frankly, it felt good to get it off my chest.

   And, if you have the time, here is the actual talk:

BBB's Last History Talk In Schieffelin Hall

"A storyteller shouldn't know what's on the next page."

—Jefrey Archer

My Last Trip to Tombstone

 October 25, 2026

   I had a little bit of deja vu yesterday. Found myself in Tombstone for one last history talk about you know what.

Former Kingman Kid Walks It Off

   The day before I found myself hiking into the Mustang Mountains east of Sonoita, Arizona searching for an elusive historic site. Where exactly did Wyatt Earp dispatch Curly Bill Brocius?

   My guide, Stu Metzer, picked me up at the Sonoita Inn at one and we motored east almost to the town of Whetsone, where we pulled off the highway and, after a couple locked gates were handled, we set off on foot towards a lone hill. 

History Hikers On The Hunt In The Mustangs

   I realized this was at least the fourth time I have traversed this area looking for the very same thing. The first time was in April of 1980 when I brought a topo map from Wide World of Maps (bought in west Phoenix) and started south with my new wife, who was eight-and-one-half-months pregnant with our first child in a borrowed pick up from John Weinkauf. This was long before Bill Evans found a compelling location west of the newspaper reported Mescal Springs. We did extensive coverage on that in the magazine. And now, this third site, which I have been to several times and is about five miles south of the Evans site at the base of the Mustang Mountains.

   The next day, Saturday, I had my final history talk in Schieffelin Hall and since I knew it was a "burning bridges" talk I let go a notch—or two!—and laid it out raw, telling stories I have never told publicly (The Penis Commission!) and in the process my language got a little more ribald and although it was videotaped, they are going to have to do some cleaning up of my language!

   I apologized to my host Janelle Molony who has her work cut out for her.

My Road Trippin' Compadres

"Jersey Girl" Michele, Gator and Rooster Rob

   We also attended the Clyne Ranch Campout where I also spoke on Saturday. More on that tomorrow.

Sunrise Over The Mustangs

   I spent a fantastic weekend in Tombstone and Sonoita chasing legends and nailing down the final "facts" on my Burning Bridges Tour. I have no plans to come back and that's a good thing.

"You can put anything you want under a microscope and find anything you want."

—Old Vaquero Saying