A Critical Critique of BBB Stand By For Brutality

 April 2, 2026

   Sometimes I am forced to evaluate where I have been and, to be honest, it can get a little brutal.

Daily Whip Outs: "A Painful Landscape"

   Once in a while the past catches up to me and I just have to face the music. This is a tough one to swallow. I have spent the better part of five decades trying to be a successful cartoonist, author, historian and fine artist and the results are so damn spotty it's not even funny. Well, perhaps a little funny if abject humiliation makes you laugh out loud. 

"He who sips from many cups, drinks of none."

—Old Vaquero Saying

   I just received a credit of $350 on a painting I donated to a certain museum that was valued at $500-$750 and the painting I donated to another museum received zero bids and it was of the Cave Creek Mountains!

Daily Whip Out:

"Sunset On The Cave Creek Mountains"

   Son of a bitch, that smarts! What the hell am I doing? Might as well make a joke out of it all, although that might be simply redundant.

My Personal Appointment With Agony

    Full disclosure: what follows was a five paragraph diatrible, full of swear words you don't need to read, but Sweet Mama, to be so lame and not know it is such a drag. It's so damn painful to be so old and not realize it is just the very worst of the worse. Okay, now that I have acknowledged my incompetence, NOW what am I going to do?

   I'll think of something, because my mother told me I could do anything. Ha. There's my life, right there! My super power is my Infallable Positive Self Regard. No mortal can crack THAT!

"One of the most important decisions you will make is to be in a good mood when you wake up."

—Old Vaquero Saying

   Meanwhile, a little farther south of here. . .

“If you spit in the sky, it comes back.”

—Old Vaquero Saying

Daily Whip Out: "Los Jurados"

A Gentle Rain And Horseman, Pass By

 April 1, 2026

   Got some light rain early this morning and it made for a very pleasant walk with Uno.

Uno Appreciating The Cool Roadway 

Oh, Behave!

Calamity Jane from the new Lucky Luke

   Meanwhile, Stuart Rosebrook has a theory about how Willie & Waylon & The Boys saved the U.S. of A back in the seventies (1976 to be specific) and I asked him to write up a manifesto on the topic, just in time for our July issue where we will commemorate our 250th birthday. The Nation, not our publication.

Willie Goes All Sugarloaf Before

It Was Popular, in Barbarosa

   Meanwhile, we are doing an homage to Robert Duvall and his immortal role as "Gus" in the next issue and I did this for my editorial.

Daily Whip Out: "Horseman Pass By"

      That is a classic line from the epitaph on the tombstone of this guy:

"Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death

Horseman, pass by."

—W B Yeats

Bonus Epitaph

   Speaking of epitaphs, our good friend, Mark Boardman has been the editor of the Tombstone Epitaph for the past nine years. Here he is at the printer early on:

Mark Boardman, Editor of

The Tombstone Epitaph on press, as they say.

Vaqueros Galore And Bizzaro Sombreros

 March 31, 2026

   Sometimes when you look back you can see ahead. . .

Whip Outs Galore

   If you ask me, there is a book shaping up around all those colorful vaqueros.

"Truth is the daughter of time."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Daily Whip Out: "Truthful Daughter"

    And, if you ask the old vaqueros, how you begin a book is rather important:

Wake Up!

"Well begun is half done."

—Old Vaquero Saying

More Bizzaro Somberos!

A sea of deep dish sombreros

   What is with this bizarre upcurl brim? Here's another good look at them. . .

   That is a traditional sombrero on the left, then we get a half-barrel, but the guy on the right is wearing a flower pot—on his head! I have been sending out the word to all my compadres on the border—that would be you Greg Scott!—who started this, when did it die and what the hell was it called? It must have had a name.

This Pulque Pendejo Still Takes The Cake

   However, I do know that the enthusiasm for a book on this narrow subculture may not appeal to everyone. Gee, I wonder if the old vaqueros have a saying for THAT? 

"There is no worse robber than a bad book."

—Old Vaquero Saying

New Wild Bunch Exhibit Plus The Presbyterian Wager Goes South

 March 30, 2026

   Yesterday, after I introduced McCabe & Mrs. Miller in the theater at the Scottsdale Museum of the West, the curator, Andrew Patrick Nelson, gave me a personal tour of the new art show in the new wing of the museum. I had to stop and get a photo of me with the Wild Bunch Boys.

   This is part of a big, new show: "Still In The Saddle: A New History of the Hollywood Western." They had a record crowd on Saturday with 3,400 people coming into the museum. Very heartening for those of us who care.

The Presbyterian Church Wager

   That was the title Robert Altman was going to use for his oddball Western based on a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton called "McCabe." A threatening call from elders in the Presbyterian Church disabused the legal department at Warner Brothers on using the title, so Altman then went with "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" which is still an odd enough title. Where is Mr. Miller in all of this?

   A few more odds and ends about my favorite Western. Here is the actual scene I love so much where the unfinished boards invade the windows and a doorway. . .

Unfinished doors and whores   

  Just so counter intuitive for a typical Western movie town. I seem to recall other towns being built in Westerns but, like I said, they are utilizing real carpenters and even the unfinished nature of the buildings seem to be, well, professional.

   Yes, that is a J.I. Case 80 horsepower steam engine tractor from 1912 that brings Mrs. Miller into town. For all the nitpickers out there, the movie is set in 1902.

   The movie uses three songs by Leonard Cohen, "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy" and "Winter Lady."

   Just got this new tune apparently inspired by my many connections to old Route 66:

Daddy Ran A Gas Station

   I was especially touched by the these lyrics:

"Mother Road won't you take me home, the car seems to know the way. . ."

—Jeff Shreckler, author of Daddy Ran A Gas Station

   Meanwhile, back down on the border, what in the hell is the style of this hat? A Deep Dish Sombrero? A Rain Barrel for The Head?

   It's not a one-off either. I have seen quite a few on the heads of villagers. Someone please explain. 

"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."

—Marshall McLuhan

My Favorite Western Is Not All That Great. That's What Makes It So Perfect

 March 29, 2026

   Here is my introduction to a film being shown today down at the Scottsdale Museum of The West:

   I am often asked what is my favorite Western and my answer does not always sit well with some purists. First of all, let me say I love weather in movies; the snowstorm in It's A Wonderful Life comes to mind, as does the rain storm in Two Lane Blacktop, but the all time weather film in my book is the film you are about to see.

   Another thing I love about this film, is that the town in the movie is so raw and unfinished and it is a thing of joy to anyone who loves authenticity in Westerns. When movie towns are built—think Old Tucson, Mescal or Knott's Berry Farm, they bring in real carpenters and the doors are plumbed and finished sometimes with great flair, because, well, they are skilled carpenters and dammit, they are proud of their profession. In this film, doors are unfinished, boards are left hanging down in windows, and discarded lumber and debris is scattered all over the place. 

Unfinished Doors & Whores

   The word is that Vietnam draft dodgers (it was filmed in 1970, after all!) were hired to build the town set in the wilds of British Columbia and they were semi-talented hippies who also appear in the film as extras. Anyway, the town is perfect, in the sense that it is totally imperfect!

   In classic Hollywood style, dialogue is meticulously focused on, with every actor delivering their lines cleanly, so that it can be understood, but not in this film. The director has characters talking over each other with different conversations bleeding through to others. In this film language becomes a sound effect. Someone said it is "sound drenched in realism."

   In terms of theme, a typical Western focuses on individuals trying to enact law and order in a land that has none. In this film the characters are shoehorned into a civilized structure, via big mining interests. Everyone is just a cog in the machine. For this it has been tagged as anti-Western, but I think it's actually a Dead On Western.

   In the end it's not the greatest Western, but it is something more: almost a poem in a dream. Put another way it's a super authentic Western that defies gravity. And, somehow it works even when it doesn't work. This is why it's my favorite Western.

   But don't take my word for it.

"It is an incoherent, amateurish, simple-minded, boring and totally worthless piece of garbage and an insult to the intelligence of anyone stupid or masochistic enough to sit through it."

—Rex Reed, in his review of McCabe & Mrs. Miller

What do Diana Gabaldon, Ray Bradbury and Larry McMurtry Know That We Don't Know? Plenty!

 March 28, 2026

   We were at the Flagstaff Book Festival in a crammed bar just off old Route 66. It was April, 2005 at a meet and greet affair, so we authors weren't signing books, but we were drinking beers as I recall. At one point Diana Gabaldon leaned over and told me a little secret. She confessed to me that she got her start by writing scenarios on her blog and when enough people said, "What happens next?" she sent her subsequent book proposal to a publisher. It was called "Outlander."

Outlander, Season Seven

   Many moons before that—early nineties—I drove down to Tucson so I could go to the University of Arizona Special Collections to see if I could find some historical tidbit on the Lincoln County War that seemed terribly important at the time, but I can't even remember what it is now. What I do remember is parking near Speedway and Tyndall on a side street where I lived for a semester back in 1968. Finding a parking space at the U of A was, and probably still is, very hard, so this little trick saved me a longer walk and an expensive parking ticket. As I made my way across campus I saw a sign near the Student Union that said, "Ray Bradbury Talk—Second Floor." Intrigued, I made a detour and went up the flight of stairs and saw a registration table in front of a conference room, hung a right, ducked around a corner and found myself right outside of the door where Ray was in the middle of his talk, with his back to me facing the audience. I could clearly hear him and even though I only stood there for maybe three minutes he said two things that stayed with me to this day: "Writing is easy. Throw up in the morning and clean up in the afternoon," and, "Every day is Christmas Day to a dog."

   Which brings me to the late, great Larry McMurtry.

The Lasting Power of Lonesome Dove

   I have read Lonesome Dove at least three times. Someone told me McMurtry wrote it to dismantle the "Cowboy Mythology" but even though it does have some oddly contradictory messages ("We killed all the interesting people," Gus says owning up to the Texas Rangers' lethal law enforcement tendencies). So why does the book resonate so strongly? Here's an author who has also read the book multiple times. She admits, “I am an old woman and my life has been some strange balance of miraculous and mundane.” And, regarding the ending of Lonesome Dove and the bitter disappointment of the characters: “What I had seen those years ago as a lack of mercy became to me a presence of courage — to hurt them! To leave them in dismay! It was courageous because it was unbearable but it was true.”

—Sybil van Antwerp's letter to Larry McMurtry from the novel The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

Dan The Man's rough cover for next issue

   Yes, the reality of the Old West can be unbearable but if it is true it is courageous to tell it. Finally, one message is pretty clear to me.

“The most lasting moments are made of paper.”

—Old Vaquero Saying

   Oh, and one more. . .

"So, what happens next?"

When Does The Old West Become Brand New Again?

 March 27, 2026

   Just when you think something is dead and gone. 

Front Street (later renamed Andy Devine)

in Kingman, Arizona, late 1940s

   When I was just a Little League lad, in 1956, I would go into Desert Drugs (see above, at left) in downtown Kingman to buy my favorite magazine. Here are four specific issues I paid a quarter each for.

   At that time, the sweet spot of The Old West—as celebrated on the silver screen—was post Civil War (1865) to about the Oklahoma Land Rush (1889). There were exceptions of course: the mountain man era was in the 1820s and the Indian Wars and the outlaw train robberies spilled into the Twentieth Century.

   Still, think about this: today, the 1950s are as far away from us now as the Old West was to me then. So, that brings up a good question: has the heart of the popular Western story moved as well? Stuart Rosebrook thinks it has and he claims if you watch Taylor Sheridan's many shows, he has successfully moved the sweet spot. Hmmmm. I asked Stuart to write up his theory for a feature later this year in True West.

Strange Connections

   I iced jugs all summer in my father's gas station so that I could buy a book being advertised in one of the True West magazines pictured above. Here is a typical gunfighters ad:

   And here is just one of the jugs I iced:

Jugs Iced Free For You And For Me!

   And, here is the book I bought, and still have in my library.

"The Biographical Album of Western Gunfighters"

by Ed Bartholomew

   The book cost $11 which was a lot back then. My friends were buying bikes with their summer job paydays and I bought a book! But I made my choice and I'm stickin' to it. And, it must be noted, how many of my pals still have their first bicycle?

   So, how much are we going to have to change to catch up to the curve? Or, will it catch up to us and on its own? My favorite little Aussie Bastard recommends you take a look at this:

The new Lucky Luke

   Some of this is quite zany and that is one of the best Calamity Janes I have ever seen on film. According to James it's the fourth most watched video on their streaming platform—for young people!

Daily Whip Out: "Wary Vaquero"

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”

—Old Vaquero Saying

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."

—Louis L'Amour

More Damn Good Advice From the Blog Gallery

 March 26, 2026

   I asked for it and I got it: more advice on how to survive the current print apocalypse. Perhaps we all need to read "Newspaper Rock," which has some ancient headlines that might apply to today?

Daily Whip Out: "Arizona's Newspaper Rock"

   Here are just a few of the translated headlines off of the above petroglyphs:

• But it's a dry Colonialism

• Don't Shed On Me!

• Hot enough for ya?

• Hotter Still Tomorrow

• Can anyone recommend a good back hair removal shaman?

Nitpicking By The Numbers

   Just a few nitpicks from the previous suggested fixes: a bigger type face shouts out Older Audience Ahead! A bigger presence of The Making of Movies shouts out Goodbye to Authentic History! A bigger emphasis on Hipster History shouts out We Don't Need No Classic Anything!

   And yet, here is another take on where we are and the challenges of getting to where we need to be to survive. . .

Getting Past The Past Road Hog

   In my opinion, the biggest challenge will be getting over your presence in the history of the magazine.  True West means Bob Boze Bell in the minds of many of your readers.  Your art, your writing style, your personality, your very presence exists in each and every issue of the magazine.  I am not making these comments to burnish your ego.......you can certainly take care of that yourself.

Seriously, this personification embedded into the magazine's history and image is both a blessing and also creates a challenge for the new management.  A business that has a strong personality at the helm creates a dependency on the part of their customers (readers) that make it a difficult transition.  Dealing with this is a must, because keeping your current readers will be a key issue while developing a new approach that attracts new customers (readers).  Easier to maintain a strong relationship than creating a new one.

   Your history in the community, your many presentations, your early days on the radio, becoming an Arizona history maker and all of your zany productions and presentations are all in the minds of your current readers of True West.

On the other side  it will be exciting to see you "turned loose" and I look forward to your future exploits.  Please keep up the blog.

—Dennis Corderman, Scottsdale, Arizona

   Thanks. Lots to ponder on these final days of the Triple B Administration. . .

"The very best thing a father can do for his kids is to love their mother."

—Old Vaquero Saying

   And speaking of kids who were loved by their mother.

Thomas Charles Bell wearing one of my old hats and Amy Pothong Bell in Thailand 

   One more for the road. . .

Daily Whip Out: "Sum Bitch Dust Storm"

"Life is a quest whether you want one, or not."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Uno Behind The Hoosegow And How Do You Turn This Train Around?

 March 25, 2026

   Woke up with a couple of realizations. The first is how wonderful my friends are who read this blog and contribute their advice so freely—and so boldly! ha. You don't hold back and that is why I love you all. See, below.

Early Morning Uno

Uno sitting among the flowering agaves

behind the pumphouse which is disguised as a Mexican Juzgado, or, in American slang, Hoosegow

(jailhouse).

   Here are just a few of the responses I have been getting on how to make sure the magazine survives beyond the reign of the 66 Kids.

The History of Our Future, Part II

The Searchers article was excellent (March-April, 2026). It was the first article I read in that issue. I would love to see more Making Of stories concerning classic westerns. With the below picture being shared 250,000 times I think those are numbers you can't ignore. 

—Mark (True West Maniac #235), Phoenix, Arizona

The Searchers Cast & Crew at Monument Valley

(Yes, Mark is correct. This photo was shared 250,000 times on Facebook)

Too Much Billy the Kid?

   In my opinion, True West needs to stop this nonsense of every few issues being about Billy the Kid.  Enough.  EVERY SINGLE ISSUE SHOULD BE ABOUT BILLY THE KID.  Let’s be real…who cares about the Earps?  They had a shootout in a corral—big deal!  Doc Holliday?  Just a dentist with tuberculosis.  As for Jesse James…unless we’re talking about the time he and Billy met…yawn.  And don’t get me started on John Wesley Hardin, the Daltons, the Youngers, Black Jack Ketchum….  Nah.  The Kid is obviously the star of Old West history and deserves ALL of the attention.

—Lori Goodloe, President Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang, Phoenix, Arizona

Preserve Or Die But Please Increase The Type Size

   If we don't start preserving the West, there won't

be much left to write about so I would like to see a bit more coverage on the victories in that line.  Also keep covering unique controversial material like the Mormon story of recent vintage; and those tragic yet dramatic tales of the Mexican Revolution and the Indian Wars.  Those folks had a lot of sand. 

   On the other hand you simply have to increase your type size. I have had several friends let their subscriptions go because they can't read the small type.

—Lynda A. Sánchez, Lincoln, New Mexico

Go Younger Old Man

True West needs to focus on more cutting-edge articles with genuinely fresher subject matter. Getting rid of the pointless Classic West feature would create more room. There is a whole younger generation of historians out there digging up new stories and details on a frequent basis. Some of the boomers need to start taking a backseat to their fresher work. The magazine also needs to keep a sharp eye on pop-culture and cash in on any successful new Westerns that make waves like we did with American Primeval. The reality is that much of the boomer readership is dying out (Chuck Norris just checked out) and TW needs to get a little hipper to start appealing to a younger variety of readers—no more of this Jamie Foxx (Django) and Johnny Depp (Dead Man) are "too hip for the room" bullshit.

                                                  — James B. Mills, Dapto, Australia 

Editor’s Note: Dapto is Aboriginal and means “plenty water”

"How about the age-old strategy of: write sh*t your readers want to read? And if you do a good job, they pay you."

—Jeff Lawson, new owner of The Onion which he and a partner rescued from the grips of private equity

A Wild Heart And The Shirts Off Their Backs

 March 24, 2026

   One of my favorite true stories about hats involves two legendary Mojave In-dins, Irataba and Cairook.

Daily Whip Out:

"Four Hats On The Horizon"

   The Whipple Expedition (1853-54) needed guides to take them from the Mojave villages on the Colorado River to Los Angeles. Irataba and another Mojave, Cairook, volunteered. This is rough, arid country and if you've ever traveled from the Needles area across to Barstow and on to San Bernadino,  you know exactly what I'm talking about. When the expedition reached the settlements, many of Whipple's men literally gave the shirts off their backs to their Mojave guides. Three or four men gave their hats in a token of appreciation for a job well done. The artist on the expedition,  H.B. Mollhausen,  described the scene this way: "Every one had been eager to bestow on the guides who had served us so faithfully whatever article he could spare from his wardrobe, and they had immediately donned it with stoical composure, so that they now look like wandering bundles of old clothes." The two Mojaves then walked back to the Colorado River, which inspired the above painting. I believe this would make a great opening scene in a movie, with four hats, stacked high, rippling in the heatwaves of the Mojave Desert. Slowly, a head and shoulders appear and then we see two tall Mojaves walking towards us, loaded down with multiple hats and layers of clothing. As they reached their villages along the Colorado they most assuredly gifted an item, or two, to friends and family and then walked on to gift the next item until all the bounty was distributed to their tribe.

   Meanwhile, one of the captive Oatman girls was in one of those riverside villages when the Whipple Expedition came through and her name was Olive and by this time she was an excellent swimmer and she often dove deep into the surging waters of the mighty Colorado.

"Olive Dives Deep"

   When she was finally liberated—some say, recaptured—she traveled to California where she stayed briefly with Susan Thompson in Monte, California. Susan had been on the ill-fated Oatman wagon train with Olive and her family.

Susan Thompson 

   So, what really happened on the Colorado River during Olive's three years of captivity there? I believe that story has never been honestly told.

"Midnight On The Colorado"

Olive And Her Children?

   A very famous Prescott historian knew the true story but chose to demure on the side of discretion. Why?

Sharlot In Red

   To the end, they both lived out their lives with a troubling secret.

"Olive In Shadow"

(she was a captive for five years,

three with the Mojave)

"We could not erase the wild from her heart."

—Susan Thompson 

Looking Back With A Sense of Yuma

 March 23, 2026

   I got this nice note from one of the folks at the Cave Creek Museum where I spoke last Saturday.

   "I love your stories! During your talk, you handed out a card with a picture of Wyatt Earp and a quote. I inadvertently forgot it afterwards and wanted to share the quote as the opening thought in my next Toastmasters meeting. I cannot find that same quote anywhere online, including on your blog.

—Nikki Stein 

   Well, first of all it wasn't Wyatt Earp, it was this quote from Studs:

Our Shared Responsibility

   When people talk to me about stepping down from my responsibilities at True West they all seem to have good intentions but the tone and especially the look they give me is definitely, "What in the hell will you do with yourself?!"

   Ha. Do not worry about me. I've got enough ideas to last me at least five more decades. As for projects, I've got a couple dozen of those lined up as well. One of blessings I have received is having more things I want to do than there is time to do them.

Looking Back

  Also, to be honest, from time to time I will just have to remind you—and myself—of the things we accomplished and some of those we did not. This is one of the latter.

A Favorite Cover We Never Ran

Maybe next time around?

   Speaking of a good sense of Yuma. . .

   So proud of this one. Dan The Man made it pop.

And, For The Record, This Is My Kind of Yuma

From the Onion, of Course!

   I have a pet termite. His name is Clint. Clint Eatswood.

   From the pages of Escaranuza Charra, we get primo Mujeriegas.

Daily Whip Out: "Oh, Mamacita Behave!

   At the end of the day, I think Uno has the right outlook on life. . .

"Every day is Christmas Day to a dog."

—Old Vaquero Saying

The History of Our Future

 March 22, 2026

   I watched a classic Western last night and one line really stayed with me.

   Sometimes I wonder if that is our problem at True West. If true, it would sure be awful ironic considering the entire magazine is predicated on courage under fire—people with sand! That realization led me to this challenge.

The History of Our Future

   When I step down in December, I want to run two pages of prognosticating comments from the likes of you. People who are passionate about our history and not shy about expostulating on where you think the magazine needs to go to survive for the next 25 years. If you have the time, write me up 100 words on what you believe the magazine needs to stop doing and what it needs to start doing to get people's attention. Here's one hypothetical version to whet your appetite:

"True West has been a joke for far too long. Nobody respects it because the owner puts his finger paints everywhere instead of going to art school and learning how to actually paint. How about starting with running my groundbreaking booklets on the cover? At least that would be a positive step towards regaining some respect."

—Jerry Weddle, Tucson, Arizona

   Somewhere in that zone. Send your cogent comments to me at:

bozebell@twmag.com

    Be sure to include your city and state. Thank you.

   Oh, and the classic Western film referenced above is "Ride The High Country" and that is Joel McCrae delivering his line about kids today having plenty of gall but no sand (guts).

"The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know."

—Harry Truman