A Better Beale Rides A White Camel If I Can Get to The Printer On Time

 February 4, 2026

    We are making our last minute additions to a very fine issue.

   Yes, we are finishing up the March-April issue this week and all of the heavy lifting is over, but there are always those pesky little hangouts that drive our production manager crazy, and that would be requests like this:

   My frantic layout sketch to change the last spread of the cover story to include copy that wasn't in the original piece. As I reread the layouts I realized we needed to know about how one of the last camels cashed out. Dan turned my sketch into this:

The Final Demise of Red Ghost

   Also, one of my regrets on this issue is that I kind of missed on the portrait of Ned Beale on the cover. I actually think he resembles this attempt which I did today, but it's too late to do anything about it now. 

Daily Whip Out: "A Better Beale"

   I also wanted the cover back to put Beale on his favorite white camel "Seid" which would have made for a stronger cover image, but that is also water under the bridge. I often have to let these things go or I'd be following the plate makers into the dark room in Liberty, Kansas to "improve" an image, or two, before they went on press. Believe me, I have considered it!

"If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done."

—Old Vaquero Saying