July 9, 2009
Came into the office early and worked on our big vaquero package with Robert Ray and Meghan Saar. Excellent images and text by Lee Anderson and Jay Dusard. Going to be a very sweet cover story. And speaking of the cover, we are having fits with it, trying to give the cover the right Old West patina. It's a color photo and the desert is too green for a classic Vaquero scene. Dan did four or five versions today, while Robert Ray is tweaking the photograph as well, trying to find the magic mix that will make it a winner. It's late in the day (4:15) and we still don't have it, but I have confidence in the boys to pull it out.

And speaking of age old patina, I had to go home at 10 this morning to meet the plumber (we've got a leak in the kitchen sink). While waiting, I started my daily sketches by whipping out a gaggle of patina washes:

After the plumber left (and I was $115 lighter) I went out to the studio to whip out some patina boards. Building off of the last several days, I felt kind of cocky (always a bad sign), and, so, I immediately ruined four boards. Here's the least bad of the bad:

And here's the second least bad (which still has some possibilities):

I don't even want to scan the others, because they are so bad. As, is usual, after the five bad ones, and just when I was about to give up, I got this puppy:

In the huge forest fires we have been having out here in the West, they are so big they are creating their own weather systems and that's what this illustrates. Thinking about putting Mickey Free riding towards it, at the bottom, with a mountain range ahead of him, burning across the tops the ridges. Should pop it into a nighttime scene. We'll see. Wanted to do it before I came back in the office, but chickened out. Too afraid I'd ruin it.

And speaking of ruining it, and this cover we're fighting, sometimes we get tired of fighting the same old battles (insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results), and other times we get tired of fighting each other ("Where you want the contest is not among people, but among ideas." —Casey Cowell). We are closing in on 100 covers and it can get wearisome, but I remember a quote by Alice Roosevelt, when in old age, someone asked her how she felt about outliving her enemies and she said, "I miss them terribly because they defined me." So, although we all get battle fatigue from time to time, I think it's good to remember ol' Burke's advice:

"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper."
—Edmund Burke

July 8, 2009
Went home for lunch and worked on several of the rough patinas I posted this morning. Added a running Kid to the lightning scene:

This illustrates the Kid running along the ridges near Picket Post. Also did another one, using a failed board (obliterated most of it with gray, but left a couple places for the original underpainting to peek through, and also left a yellow swatch, that is a pretty good take of lighting coming through the clouds. Oh, Happy Accident No. 2!

Also started another patina with integrity:

By patina with integrity, I mean that when puddles of paint don't look contrived, they have a certain integrity (to my eye). Usually, as soon as I begin to try and make them into something, the integrity starts to disappear. It's a very odd and intriguing phenom, but it's true. And so I start by loading up my brush and laying in an undercoat, all the while looking for integrity, then add layers with as much spontaneity as I can. Like I said, as soon as I start aiming at some sort of scene the magic seems to go away, but if I keep coming back to letting it be what it wants to be, many times it ends up like this. I'm not exactly sure what it is, perhaps clouds of sheep jumping. Oh, wait! See the sheep dog, at lower right? That's it! I planned it all along.

Kathy and I are going on a dinner and movie date this evening. We got an invite to see a sneak preview movie at the Camelview Five. Review tomorrow.

"Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it's no worse than it is."
—Margaret Mitchell

July 8, 2009
Still working on more patina washes, or, starter pictures, if you will:

I think the biggest thing I've learned on this quest for 10,000 bad drawings, is that to achieve almost any effect, there is an opposite way from the most logical, or obvious one. In this case I wanted an early evening dusky effect on the desert and after I laid in the sky and the pinkish foreground I experimented with my fan brush and brought some of the sky color (which was still wet) down into the mountains. It was too strong, so I took a paper towel and rubbed it out, threw the painting down on the floor, and, while waiting for it to dry, I started another patina painting:

But when I came back to the original twilight piece I noticed that when it dried it gave off a very subtle effect of twilight with the distant mountains blending into the sky as distant mountains tend to do at twilight! This is called a happy accident, and this is an effect I would never have achieved if I hadn't made a mistake. Ha.

Perhaps the best way to document my artistic improvement is to go back to the beginning. Not the beginning of this quest, no, wayyyyyyy back, to, say 1964:

Truly Trudy Bad

Fellow Mucous classmate, Trudy (Peart) Burrus sent me this drawing I allegedly sketched in Mr. Wallace's Civics Class at Mohave County Union High School in 1964. (yes, that's allegedly Trudy at left) If you can't read the writing on the trophy it says: "Brown Nose Champ 1964-65, 1st Place." Mr. Wallace didn't much like me and the feeling was mutual, but he sure liked the cute girls in the first row, which included Trudy and the second place trophy winner, at right, Jan Prefontaine. Not a bad likeness of Mr. Wallace, but the hands and feet are Platypus City! Typical juvenile attempt. As usual, the best thing in the drawing is something totally insignificant: his pocket protector, which is decent.

"In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men."
—Simone de Beauvoir, "The Ethics of Ambiguity"

July 7, 2009
As I mentioned this morning, I have contacted a feature writer about doing a piece on my quest to do 10,000 bad drawings. Here is the query letter:

The 10,000 Bad Drawings of BBB

I am closing in on 10,000 bad drawings. As of today I have documented 9,340 sketches and drawings, stored in a series of sketchbooks bought at Aaron Brothers at Desert Ridge.

My quest started on a dare, or, actually, a statement made, by fellow cartoonist, Dave Sim (of Cerebus fame), who once claimed, "Every artist has 10,000 bad drawings in him." I remember thinking at the time I read it (probably in the mid-1980s) that the claim was probably accurate. And, from time to time, I wondered how far along I was on the path.

Several years ago, the notion hit me that I would test this rule and arbitrarily decided I would execute six sketches a day until I made the prerequisite 10K number and see for myself if I improved.

Since I've started my quest, and, in an odd serendipity, I've read that Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, has postulated that the magic number of hours needed for mastering a particular field is "10,000 hours." He reckons Bill Gates had that much computer time logged when he launched Microsoft and the Beatles had that much playing time together before they conquered America.

I had several thoughts and concerns: would my drawing skills improve? How much? Would there be a breakthrough moment?

During my quest I have tried to do my daily sketches no matter where I have been, so I have sketches done in New York City, Georgia, Wichita, and New Mexico, and also sketches done in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatamala and Peru.

The only significant time I missed sketching was when I had a heart attack, playing Wipeout at a band reunion in Kingman in March of 2008. I missed about five days, but got right back on it, and was soon up to speed again.

BBB

I got back an immediate positive response (assuming he still has a job after Thursday). He also asked me if I could illustrate how much I had improved and, although it's hard for me to be objective, here is an example of a study I did at lunchtime today:

This, of course is another take on the Apache Kid running (yes, he's whipping along in the left, middle distance), but this has some very sophisticated effects, especially in the distant cloud shadows on the mountains and in the clouds themselves. Believe me, I never had anything close to these skills at the beginning of the quest. Meanwhile, since I've upped my daily quota to ten, I have left a few boxed-patina gaps (with no sketches in them), and so, lately, I've been going back from time to time to fill in drawings in the patina boxes. Here is a patina wash page from last week:

And here's the quick gesture sketches I added today:

Heina Patina, No. 1:

Did the same thing to a batch of patina washes I did on June 28. Here are the patina washes:

And here are the patina washes with the storm riders I added at lunch today:

Heina Patina No. 2

Not quite sure how to count these. Since I already counted the ten patina boxes as my daily quota, not sure it's fair to count the sketches on top of the boxes. Hmmmmmm. Not inclined to count them, but it is an interesting new phase of the quest, with layers of effort adding tiny gusts of inspiration to almost every page. Now I'm starting to get nervous that it's all going to end. Ha. Typical artist behavior. Reminds me of the old vaquero saying to the effect that happiness is that moment between having too little and having too much. Ha.

Went and got our passport photos taken at Walgreen's at lunchtime ($7 each). Then had a veggie sandwich at the Blue Burger Grille with Kathy ($29, includes tip, house account). Bob and Trish Brink turned us on to this place last week when Ken and Lucinda Amorosano were in town. Very healthy food. Enjoyed it. I've been on my plant diet for eight days now. So far, so good. What do I miss the most? Carne asado tacos, Baby! Oh, and sirloin, and bacon and cheese crisps and key lime pie and chicken fried steak and albondigas soup and tampiquena and the Keg's filet and my grandma's Sunday roast beef. Other than that, I'm perfectly fine.

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."
—A. Whitney Griswold

July 7, 2009
Got up at 6:30 and took another crack at the Apache Kid blasting across the border on foot:

That's a little more like it. Like the forward momentum. Still debating exactly what the Kid would carry with him. A pistol? A knife? Both? I do know he stripped down to just mocassins and loin cloth for ultimate manuevering on his midnite trek.

We were mentioned in The New York Times the other day. Several people sent me the link:

Don't know if you saw this or not: New York Times

See paragraph 10.

“It represents this Texas notion of the white hats taking out the black hats and keeping the trophy,” Mr. Brinkley said. “It’s a True West magazine kind of pulp western mentality. For President Bush, this pistol represents his greatest moment of triumph, like the F.B.I. keeping Dillinger’s gun. He wants people generations from now to see the gun and say, ‘He got the bad guy.’ ”

—Jim The Reader

More Jack Durant Memories And Reference
“Have you ever read the biography of Durant? It is The Saga of Jack Durant. There was a copy of it in the Arizona Republic’s library and i read it. The guy was a genuine hoot. he even hung out in Globe for a while. Recommended reading for any AZ101 pupil.”
—Gus Walker, The Mapinator

Speaking of the Republic, I heard they are laying off 1,400 employees this Thursday. Man, those have to be deep cuts. One of the feature writers there mentioned to me he wants to do a piece on my quest for 10,000 bad drawings, but he's got to wait until Thursday to see if he even has a job! This is one of the Republic's premiere talents. Ouch!

"The generous and the bold have the best lives."
—Poetic Edda

July 6, 2009
Went home for lunch and reworked one of the images I posted this morning:

Wanted to make it more dramatic and yet shadowy, plus give the Kid at bottom, a secondary effect. Hopefully, you don't see him at first glance.

Also played more with the sunset aspect of the Apache Kid's run:

He's perhaps a little too casual in this long-distance posture, or stance, but then if you were running from Naco to San Carlos I think there'd be stretches where you might be re-oxygenating as well.

"They still believe in the family, logic, clarity, punctuation and other obsolete stuff."
—Isaac Singer, on why he began writing for children

July 6, 2009
It started with a signal fire. Or, actually, it started with the painting of a signal fire this last weekend:

As I laid in the twilight washes around this lone fire in the middle of nowhere a plot sequence began to take shape in my mind. After the killing of Sheriff Reynolds, the Apache Kid had safely made his way to Mexico and was in hiding in the Sierra Madres when he received word that the love of his life, Beauty, had been cut by her abusive and jealous husband, Curly. The Kid made up his mind to go back and rescue her but he also knew the U.S. border was crawling with troops and scouts (led by Curly) anticipating this very move.

The Kid hatched a devious and clever plan. He easily stole a hacendado's favorite stallion, known for its speed and bottom, and headed north in plain sight. With the help of a young Yaqui boy, the Kid built a huge signal fire, just south of Naco, Mexico. Sending the boy to the west on the stolen horse as a diversion (he knew the Rurales and the U.S. troops stationed along the border would come investigate), the Kid, on foot, set off on a legendary run, crossing the border fifteen miles east of Naco, skirting the Mule Mountains, South Pass and into the Dragoons.

Running mostly at night and sleeping in the crevices of the tallest peaks by day, the Kid blasted past every patrol sent out against him. Several times, while crossing an open valley, he had to divert from his path to avoid the dust of riders coming his way. There's much more, but suffice to say that gave me plenty to work on this weekend. Worked on runners:

And more runners:

And even more runners:

The Kid arrives at San Carlos unmolested, but how will he ever get past the guards surrounding Beauty's wickiup? Time to do another painting.

"The essence of tragedy is the struggle of right against right. In a tragic struggle, the victors become the guilty and must make amends to the defeated."
—I.F. Stone

July 1, 2009
Every so often I love to look at my many art books for inspiration. Last week I came under the spell of Rembrandt and ear marked a couple paintings to do studies from. Here is one of his paintings that caught my eye:

The Abduction of Proserpina, c. 1632 struck me as quite bold in its design, especially how he pushed everything over to the left which leaves this huge negative space to the right. Can you do that? Well, considering how dynamic The Abduction is, I would say, YES, YOU HAVE TO DO It!

So, I did:

The others are also inspired (or poached, if you want to get technical) from other Rembrandt paintings, including, but not limited to: Self-Portrait with Gorget, 1629 and The Entombment of Christ, c. 1639. However, the rock throwers in the bottom, right panel are from a news photograph of rioters in Iran.

I actually laid in a bold wash before I went to work this morning, and, when I came home for lunch I finished it:

This is the Apache Kid on his run (remember, he can outrun a horse) from Mexico to San Carlos to rescue—or is it a kidnapping?—Beauty. He knows where all the springs are (this one is in a side canyon of Arivaipa Creek).

Michael Jackson Vs. BBB Heart Attack
"On the medical front, I was thinking of how strange it is that a drummer for a long-defunct local band can collapse from a heart attack at a rehearsal and end up walking out of a hospital....compared to one of the best selling music artists of all time, who suffers cardiac arrest at home, with a doctor present, and doesn't even make it to the hospital. Of course, you haven't abused drugs for years....I think. It's a strange world, isn't it?"
—Mark Boardman

"The only thing I have abused is the patience of my co-workers and my family."
—BBB

July 1, 2009
I sent out the first batch of 8-Page-Mickeys yesterday. They should start landing any minute now. Got the first response from Albuquerque:

"Love those mini-Mickeys!"
—The Top Secret Writer

Yes, there is something so cool about those 8-Page-Mickeys, even though it is incomplete, people are responding. Robert Ray's wife, Bea, sat down, read it and said, "I want to read the rest." That's a good thing.

Finished the Apache Kid book last night.

Once again, if you want one, call Bob Pugh at (520) 293-1260. A couple interesting tidbits:

McKanna claims the Apache Kid grew up in the Ash Flat area of Arivaipa Creek and that he preferred this area to hide in (the book says, "The Ash Flat region is near the northern end of Aravaipa Canyon"), and also the Santa Catalinas north of Tucson, and then in the Sierra Madres. The book calls out Fronteras, Bavispe, Nacozari de Garcia (south of Fronteras and west of Bavispe), but he doesn't explain why. I'm contracting Gus to do us a series of good maps for this.

When the Kid ran away from Sieber and Pearce at the Tragic Pow Wow, he was on foot. Gonshayee, who allegedly became a sub-chief of the S1 clan when Apache Kid declined, testified at the court marshal, "I saw [Kid] afterwards way up the Gila [River]. . .Kid got up there on foot, of course he is better than a horse, can run better than a horse."

I'm using that quote for sure! Sometimes you can't make up anything better than the real stuff.

When the Kid came back from Alcatraz he was serenaded by the 10th Cav. band at San Carlos, but within days Captain Bullis filed a complaint against the Kid for the murder of Michael Grace near Crittenden during the raid a year earlier when the Kid almost went to Mexico but returned. Kid was arrested and transported to Tucson and put in the Pima County Jail. He was then taken to Globe for his trial which lasted only a day (and convicted and sentenced to seven years in Yuma). This takes some of the onus off of Sieber and puts it on Bullis, who is our heavy anyway. Interesting. According to McKanna, it's Bullis who sets in motion the final transformation of the Kid into "a renegade."

All told, the Kid spent two years in prisons from the San Carlos Guardhouse, Alcatraz, and the Pima and Gila county jails.

McKanna sites evidence that Massai teamed up with the Apache Kid in Mexico, and in October of of 1890 Captain Bullis complained of numerous disturbances on the San Carlos Res during the year and blamed Massai. And "In 1893 Captain Johnson admitted that Kid had made several intrusions upon the reservation. On at least one occasion Kid was accompanied by two Chiricuahuas from Sonora, one of whom might have been Massai."

Our friend Bachenol, who McKanna calls"Bachoandoth" loses his head. He was decapitated by scouts who tracked him down after his escape from the ill-fated Reynold's stagecoach ride.

Also, a newspaper claimed the best way to eliminate the Kid was "to offer 'head money' on the reservation." So, our decapitated beginning and ending, has some historic heft. As if we needed it! Ha.

Both Mexico and the U.S. feared the Kid's raids so much that, in June of 1890, Mexico approved a reciprocal crossing agreement that allowed troops from both countries to pursue renegades across the border.

Again, quoting McKanna: "In 1896 Archie McIntosh, a scout, suggested to General Miles that, with the aid of five Apache scouts, he could capture Kid. Miles, rather foolishly, endorsed the plan, but McIntosh went on a drinking binge and Miles fired him before he began his expedition."

According to the artist Ross Santee, the Kid rode with Pancho Villa's troops in 1915. Even as late as 1935 there were reports that the Kid "had visited old friends at San Carlos."

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish."
—Old Vaquero Saying

June 30, 2009
I received a new book on the Apache Kid yesterday from Bob Pugh's Trails To Yesterday Books in Tucson (if you want to order your own, call Bob at (520) 293-1260). Read a bit last night. The name of the book is Renegade of Renegades: Court-martial of Apache Kid. by Clare V. McKanna, Jr. who teaches history at San Diego State University.

McKanna uses Apache Kid exclusively, as opposed to THE Apache Kid, as in, "Though his trials would not end in justice, each played its part in transforming Apache Kid into Arizona's legendary renegade of renegades."

A couple insights: Major Bullis was at San Carlos after the Kid, excuse me, Kid came in from the fight in the Rincons. And, the Apache Kid was with Seiber at the Battle of Big Dry Wash, which I didn't know, although McKanna doesn't add anything significant, other than Kid was there. More later.

Yesterday, as I left the office, I took a couple photos of dramatic storm clouds over Black Mountain:

As I drove up Cahava Ranch Road I caught this Cecile B. DeMille beauty:

Got a couple sprinkles, but that's it. Peaches was hiding in the garage, so there must have been some thunder, although I never heard any. Deena and her friend Patricia came out for dinner last night at our house. We're starting the Engine 2 heart healthy diet so we ate a ton of greens. Laughed quite a bit though.

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."
—Bertrand Russell

June 30, 2009
It's no secret: I can be scattered. Kathy mentioned to me the other day, like most women, she is a "gatherer," to which I responded, "Yes, and I'm a scatterer."

She has been ribbing me about this ever since.

Anyway, the Mickey Free project has been starting, stalling, starting, peedering out and proceeding, then stopping for bug bite medical issues (both mine and the Top Secret Writer, who was almost fatally bitten, last Fourth of July, in Tombstone of all places), and then starting again, mostly in stumbles and lurches for quite a while now. The project went into a lull after we published the Mickey Free excerpt last December in True West. And, although we were honored with a second place finish in the Best Western Short Fiction Story presented at last week's Western Writers of America Awards Competition, for our efforts, we have much bigger plans for the Mickster.

So, when our production manager, Robert Ray, went to a seminar last week, the guy who was running it handed out these mini-graphic novels about his presentation. Robert asked him how he produced it and when Robert came back to work, he started in to create an 8-Page-Mickey. He printed out a gaggle of them and I have been mailing them out. This, in turn has re-energized me and, today, as it pertains to Mickey Free, I am honking for the passing lane, Baby!

Last night I laid in seven washes:

Today, when I went home for lunch, I started developing these frames, looking for clues and mini-highlights to enchance:

This is what came out of those efforts: Mickey rode across a desolate, burning landscape with his Sharps rifle across the pommel, every second anticipating the worst. Mick's big mule, Tu, cocked his long ears in the wind, nervous and jumpy as well. Weird, distorted images materialized in the dust, as grotesque faces rushed by in the howl of the wind. . .

Had a very good fire set piece going but killed the cloud of smoke with too many layers:

Gee, I wonder: is there any quote that might sum up these efforts and, that of Custer's as well?

"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error."
—John Kenneth Galbraith

June 29, 2009
As promised, here is a sampling of the patina based washes I worked on this weekend, starting with a steep trail in the Sierra Madres (literally "mother mountains"). Need to add a single file of riders, probably Rurales, or bandidos (led by one Doroteo Villa):

This is a set piece for the General Crook foray into Mexico: a thousand men and hundreds of pack mules climbing up the narrow trails:

It needs a bunch of mules, climbing the switchbacks and troopers prodding them on. Here's a nice start of a painting I call "Three Ominous Clouds."

So, why so ominous? Well, if we add a dust storm and a mule rider, pondering that very idea. . .

Or, these clouds, or, flying fish clouds, if you prefer:

Or, this nice start of post-fire sky:

Or, this steep ridge, that the Kid is going to traverse:

There's plenty more, but enough for one day.

Just got a message from "Allen" saying the Wall Street Journal published my letter praising Allen Barra's John Dillinger piece (see link from two days ago). Although he didn't leave a last name (he talked to Lynda and I was in a meeting) I assume it's either Allen Barra or Allen Fossenkemper.

8-Page-Mickey
Robert Ray printed out a handful of mini-Mickey-graphic-novels. Send me a self-addressed-stamped-envelope (bigger than a number 10) and if you're one of the first dozen, you'll get one of these nifty, little boogers, totally free.

Here's a taste (page 4 and 5):

"It is a lesson which all history teaches wise men, to put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

June 29, 2009
Last week, in Vegas, Charlie Waters, alias Bugs, went undercover wearing a True West ball cap and a Doc Holliday "I'm your huckleberry" T-shirt.

Here's the full report:

The World Series of Poker

Worked all weekend on sketches, starting with a prickly pear study:

Which led to this:

Followed by studies of Mickey's Mama, and hole in the sky:

Also spent some time with Dead Sea Scroll type patinas:

On a break, got into a Rembrandt art book and came under his spell:

Bozebrandt Poaching:

And more patina noodling:

This led to a rash of bigger patina studies (art to follow: filed under "Wasting Away In Patinaville").

"The man of reflection discovers Truth; but the one who enjoys it and makes use of its heavenly gifts is the man of action."
—Benito Perez Galdos

June 27, 2009
Evap cooler is not working. May have to switch to AC. Actually, we made it past most of June so that is a big deal. Going into The Beast in about a half hour to see a movie and then get healthy groceries at Sprouts. Kind of inspired to clean up my act even more (too many heart attack stories).

Wrote up a query letter for the 10,000 Bad Drawings of BBB book. I'm thinking of sending it out when I hit 9,500 sketches. Then really hit it hard for the last 500 sketches and the goal line is reached (projected for August 31 if my math is correct).

Working on a prickly pear sequence for Mickey Free. Feels good. Also developing a dead sea scrolls patina. Images later.

Allen Barra wrote an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal on the historic John Dillinger and his portrayal in the movies. Johnny Depp stars in the new Public Enemies. I've seen lots of TV ads but have heard absolutely zero buzz. What gives?

Anyway, in the piece Allen mentions that in the Clyde Barrow death car, officers found The Saga of Billy the Kid by Walter Noble Burns (no doubt with a few bullet holes). Jeff Guinn is being credited with finding this info and he published it in his best-selling book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie And Clyde. Guinn is now turning his attention to the street fight in Tombstone. If his book on Bonnie and Clyde is any indication, it will be good.

Here's the paragraph from the book (page 343): "In their car on the morning of May 23 the lawmen found three BARs, two sawed-off shotguns, almost a dozen handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, fifteen sets of stolen license plates, several suitcases full of clothes, a makeup case, a box of fishing tackle, several true crime magazines, road maps, and Clyde's saxophone. There was also a book, The Saga of Billy the Kid by Walter Noble Burns."

"Advise person never to engage in killing."
—Billy the Kid

June 26, 2009
Really a scorcher today. Did get a couple rain drops last night (in Arizona a six inch rain, is one drop every six inches).

Went home for lunch and turned on the chicken misters and watched the rooster, Cocky, stretch out in the sauna with a babe under each wing. He appeared to be sipping on a spaghetti noodle cocktail but I couldn't quite see under the umbrella.

Worked on ten sketches, then got the call from Carole that the legendary Gus Walker, The Mapinator, was in the house, so I motored back to the office to meet the Man who makes our maps so distinctive. Here's a photo and Abby's take on the visit:

Abby and Gus in front of Abby's computer.

Gus used to work in our offices, but he and his wife Patty moved to Alabama a couple years ago and we really haven't seen him in a long time, even though we all email back and forth almost every day. It's weird how more and more we have these relationships with so many people we do not see (and in some cases we don't even know what they look like).

I get a ton of mail and Lynda is trying to help me organize it and answer each and every one in a timely manner. For example, got a sweet hand-written letter from Virgiline (not Virginia, it's Virgil-line) Spencer a couple days ago. Here's what it said:

Editor,
I read your magazines thru cassettes from the library in Port Huron, Michigan.
Heard your recipe for Griddle Cakes on my cassettes. This one is much simpler. Most of the people I cooked it for didn’t like sour milk, so I made it with fresh milk & self rising flour.

Flannel Griddle Cakes
2 cups – Bread Crumbs
2 cups – Sour Milk (can use fresh milk)
? teaspoon – Salt
1 teaspoon – Baking Soda (omit if using fresh milk)
1 cup – Self-rising flour
1 – Egg

Soak bread crumbs in warm water. Add milk & flour and let stand overnight. In the morning add rest of ingredients. Bake on hot griddle.

This was taken out of a book my mother had: International Cook Book, page 349. It has pictures of lots of chefs from different countries menus.

—Virgiline Spencer
Carsonville, Michigan

Ain't that the sweetest? She's responding to Sherry Monahan's new column in True West which features Old West recipes for drinks and food, among other things. Good work Sherry!

Not so long ago, Fred Nolan sent me an illustration in a British newspaper that emulated the American flag serape that Mickey Free wears. Well, when it rains, it poaches, here's Dilbert, by Scott Adams, with a clearly Mickey Free inspired cartoon:

Well, maybe, not inspired, but certainly an eyeful, eh?

This morning, Robert Ray whipped out the first Eight-Page-Mickey and it is so bitchin' I can't stand it. He's tweaking the images even as you read this and I'll have samples to hand out to anyone who wants one for their very own pocket—as soon as it's ready.

What Was I Doing Ten Years Ago Today?

June 26, 1999
A day of rest [it was a Sat.] Bob McCubbin went to a hotel in Scottsdale [he came over from El Paso for my art opening in Wickenburg]. Tommy is working at the Caddyshack. Deena is working at Ice Breakers. Matthias is off shopping and Kathy is seeing clients. I made pancakes, went for a walk with Kathy. Had a financial talk and it wasn't miserable. She thinks we should take [my father's] estate and pay off the house and buy True West. Her rationale: that's how our portfolio would look. That's our investment: this house and the magazine. Pretty exciting, really.

The previous day, I wrote this:

Mattias [our German foreign exchange student] had a party in the studio. Left the roof open [the hatch to the crow's nest] and the fan on. He leaves the refrigerator open, with food out all the time and when he went to Kathy's class, he told them, "You Americans waste so much." Ha!

Tommy came in at 3 with JJ. More hickies and open condoms. Sigh.
—BBB

"A man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his life as if he were recounting it."
—Jean-Paul Sartre

June 26, 2009
Working on a series of nocturne studies in my sketchbook:

Check out the small boy on horseback in the second panel. He's riding through the desert on a tall horse. The Apache Kid is running in the other panels towards. . .Beauty, of course (last panel). These are sketches 9,216-9,220.

Several people have asked me how long Charlie Waters and I have been friends and are there any photos of the two of us. Although I haven't been able to locate any of us in grade school (we met in the third grade), fellow classmate, Michele (Gilpin) Bonham sent me a photo last week of Mrs. Klotch's fifth grade class, taken in 1958, at Grandview Elementary in Kingman, and lo and behold there we are:

Troublemakers? Oh, yes, In fact, Charlie (note the pachuko-waterfall-hair twirl in the front) and I got in the usual classroom trouble most boys get into. The next fall, Charlie's parents went to the school board and demanded that he be put in another classroom away from me. He was, and although it bothered my mother at the time, looking back from this perspective, it's kind of cool that I was the Eddie Haskall in the deal.

"That's a nice dress you have on, Mrs. Cleaver."
—Eddie Haskall, Leave It To Beaver