How Much of Our History Is Hogwash?

 April 17, 2022

   A long time ago in a land far away I was the president of Luther League. What does that have to do with this Easter Sunday? It means I am conflicted, just like our history.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"The Supplicant"

  Here is a popular quote that gets bandied about on Social Media a lot these days: "History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from it. And if it offends you, even better. Because then you are less likely to repeat it. It's not yours to erase. It belongs to all of us."

   This presumes history is a finite, solid thing, written in stone, as it were. But is that even true?

Just The Facts, Ma'am

   Turns out, history is not a science, it's merely storytelling with facts. And, even those facts are prone to change because, if history has taught me anything, it's that nothing changes more than the past.

   Case in point: There was a Civil War general who saved the United States at the Battle of Gettysburg. Three times he thwarted a Confederate cavalry charge that tipped the scales of battle in favor of the Union. This same war hero later died fighting for his country and a monument marks the spot. Today, his adversaries hold the higher ground and the brave soldier is now viewed as a genocidal, psychopath. Go tell George Armstrong Custer what part of history is not yours to erase, or change.

   The irony is, both the pro-Custer and anti-Custer versions of history use the same set of facts, just looking at them from the opposite direction. In the current, popular phase, we get the Native American point of view. Thanks to books, primarily, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," and, specifically, "Custer Died For Your Sins" the narrative has been spun out in a different direction. And the problem for history is, both accounts are about half right.

   History is like myth in pre-modern culture. It's the way we explain ourselves to ourselves. Louis Menand wrote that, referencing Levi-Strauss, the philosopher not the denim maker.

  We are all trying to make sense of the past. But in the end we all try to emphasize the facts that serve our prejudices.

When The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

As the story goes, a certain historian was arrested during the Hungarian revolution and he was asked if he was carrying a weapon and he allegedly handed over his pen. That's what makes this illustration so genius.

Illustrator Miguel Porlan's brilliant

portrayal of Louis Menand's essay in The New Yorker, in his review of the book, "Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past" by Richard Cohen

"There is no truth, there is no history, there is only the way the story is told."

—Richard Avedon

Paul Northrop, King of The History Research Road Trip

 April 16, 2022

   Paul Northrop passed away last week. I have to say Paul told the corniest jokes I have ever heard in my life. And believe me, we traveled many, many miles in search of the Kid and other history-related-misfits, so I heard them all. Some more than once. But, he always made me laugh in spite of the bad jokes, or, maybe even BECAUSE of them. Here is a picture I took of Paul in 1991, in Bob McCubbin's library, the day I met him for the very first time.

Paul Northrop, 1991

   Over the years, we ended up taking dozens of history research road trips to various, far flung locations. For example, when I mentioned to Paul that Billy the Kid was sighted riding with the Jesse Evan's gang at Cook's Canyon, Paul drove me out there (the panorama I took of the canyon is in my Billy book). When I inquired about the ill-fated route John Tunstall and his men, including the Kid, took from the Tunstall Ranch on Seven Rivers towards Lincoln, Paul comandeered a plane and a local pilot and we actually took off from the Tunstall Ranch and flew the entire route, up and back. When we were in Tombstone in May of 1993 and several of us wanted to see Drew's Station where the infamous attempted stage robbery took place that launched the events that led up to the O.K. Corral fight, Paul found a local cowboy who knew where Drew's Station was. Only the corner of the main building remained, but here we are at the site.

The Cowboy (who didn't want his name mentioned), at left, who took us to Drew's Station. That's Jeff Morey, center and Paul Northrop, at right, on May 28, 1993.

   Same is true for Skeleton Canyon (site of Curly Bill ambush and Geronimo's second surrender), and the Sander's Ranch where John Ringo's body was found and even Canyon de los Embudos where Geronimo surrendered in Mexico, Paul went thru his connections at the border patrol and made it happen. But Paul's ability to get me into history sites even extended deep into Mexico. In 1996, Paul joined forces with a Mexican tour guide and Ed Mell and his son, and me and my son, joined Paul on an extended trip into Chihuahua (where Victorio was ambushed), then on to Chihuahua City (we visited Pancho Villa's house), up through Creel and Divisidaro on the Copper Canyon Railway and back to Janos, where Geronimo lived and raided. If there was a historic location Paul would not only find it but get permission for me to see it.

Loved the guy. While it's true the road is the only thing, the end is part of the journey. Adios my friend. See you down another road. I'm sure of it.

   Recently, I've been studying the art of storytelling through the master, Shelby Foote.

The point I would make is that the novelist and the historian are seeking the same thing: the truth—not a different truth: the same truth—only they reach it, or try to reach it, by different routes. Whether the event took place in a world now gone to dust, preserved by documents and evaluated by scholarship, or in the imagination, preserved by memory and distilled by the creative process, they both want to tell us how it was: to recreate it, by their separate methods, and make it live again in the world around them.

This has been my aim, as well, only I have combined the two. Accepting the historian’s standards without his paraphernalia, I have employed the novelist’s methods without his license. Instead of inventing characters and incidents, I searched them out—and having found them, I took them as they were."

—Shelby Foote

The Fashion Changes The Beach Remains The Same

Daytona Beach 1904

Credit: sebcolorisation on Instagram

historycolored.com

And here's the same beach 53 years later. . .

Daytona Beach 1957

   Each have their charms, each seem to be the end of the line in terms of "progress." And yet each one is slowly eclipsed by something newer and different, just like we are. And yet, the beach remains the same. Kind of endlessly weird, yes?

"The road is the only thing."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Bozecard Reaction, Black Bart Winger & Sarah Brava

 April 15, 2022

   Got this today about one of the Bozecards I sent out earlier this week. 

Roy Comiskey's desk today

"I'm a retired editorial art director, artist and a bit of a collector. I have placed your postcard in my studio. Looking forward to reading the humor issue. Thanks a bunch, I really appreciate it."

—Roy Comiskey

The Kid Who Winged Charles Bolton

This is Jimmy Rolleri, above, who got plucky with his hunting rifle and winged one Charles Bolton which indirectly brought to an end the long reign of the legendary stage robber Black Bart. That story, with new details, is coming out in a forthcoming book by a certain best selling author and historian whose initials are J.B. and we will have that on the cover of True West as soon as it's ready. Stay tuned.

And speaking of potential covers. here's one of my favorite feisty females who really does belong on a cover.

Daily Whip Out: "Sarah Brava Mug Shot"

And here's a vivid description of her.

"She slew a Mexican who cut her across the cheek with his saber. She boasts a large scar on her cheek from this wound. She appears here modest and womanly not withstanding her great size and attire. She has on a crimson velvet waist, a pretty riding skirt and her head is surmounted by a gold laced cap of the Second Artillery. She is carrying pistols and a rifle. She reminds me of Joan of Arc and the days of chivalry."

—Sylvester W. Matson, a soldier at Fort Webster, in 1852, describing "The Great Western"

Ooops. Forgot to add the scar.

Big Foot Wallace & My Great Grandmother

 April 14, 2022

   Our editor, Stuart Rosebrook, was on his way to the Arizona-New Mexico joint history conference held last weekend in Las Cruces when I mentioned my great-grandfather Henry Guess is buried at Steins Pass which is on I-10 at the Arizona, New Mexico line. On his way home from the conference, Stuart stopped and took a couple photographs.

Henry Guess grave at Steins Pass

   Means a lot to me. Henry died on my birthday, December 19.

   That's Henry Guess, at bottom right, above, with his wife—and my great grandmother—Dolce, who was originally a Wallace and it's thru her we claim relations to Big Foot Wallace, standing with rifle.       Dolce is buried at Hackberry, Arizona.

BBB at Dolce's grave marker in Hackberry

   So, I have some family history out there and I realize this is only my family's side of things, but you know what certain lawyers say about that. . .

"He who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that."

—John Stuart Mill

And The Winner Is. . .

 April 13, 2022

   Our Art Director Dan The Man took my four paintings and developed two of them into cover concepts. Here they are:

The dark version

The colorful version

   Your thoughts please. Which one would you buy?

"I've always been a big fan of beauty. Sure, you can't judge a book by its cover, but who wants to have sex with a book?"

—Stephen Colbert

Lotta Overproducing Going On

 April 12, 2022

   I have been known to overproduce. It is both a blessing and a curse. In recent weeks I have striven for a lighter touch, to try and quit earlier on artwork and to keep it simple. Be that as it may, I've created four different takes on Lotta Crabtree as a possible cover for our Women's book and here they are, starting with the latest one which I finished this morning.

Lotta Overproducing Going On

Daily Whip Out: "Whole Lotta Love #4"

Daily Whip Out: "Whole Lotta Love #3"

Daily Whip Out: "Whole Lotta Love #2"

Daily Whip Out: "Whole Lotta Love #1"

   I am so punch drunk on this I can't decide which one is the best for the cover. If I had to make a choice, I think number one has the most authentic Victorian look, number two is too cartoony (I was trying to emulate Alphonse Mucha) and number four has potential. I like the very subtle pistol peeking out. Number three is meh.

"When we listen to a tale, we need to take into account the teller."

—Louis Menand

Hats Off to The Women of Potosi

 April 11, 2022

   Thanks to Kathy Sue the whole family got to go to South America 14 years ago and one of the things that amazed me was the cool hats the women wear in Peru and Bolivia and all thru that region. Here are two women in Potosi, Bolivia, 1955. 

Photo by Sergio Larrain.

So damn cool.

   And, here are some of the sketches I made of the women I met on the trip.

Daily Whip Out:

"Peruvian Top Knot Bowler Hat"

August, 2008

   Our son, Thomas Charles, was in the Peace Corp in a high mountain town, Yanque, which was in a valley at 10,500 feet above sea level!

Daily Whip Outs:

"Yanque, Peru Scenes"

August, 2008

Our wonderful neighbor, Lynne Augherton made us some homemade dishes and sent them up the hill to us. As you can see, Uno is interested in a test tasting.

You Know Uno

"I need that in my mouth!" 

Still trying to capture the likeness of Lotta. 

Daily Whip Out: "Lotta In Gray"

"Whole lotta love. . ."

—Led Zeppelin

A Whole Lotta Love

 April 10, 2022

   One of my favorite feisty females of the Wild West is Charlott Mignon Crabtree.

Daily Whip Out:

"Lotta's Makin' Eyes at You"

   She's better known as Lotta Crabtree, born in 1847. She came West with her mother, Mary Ann, to join the latter's husband, and the former's father, who was a California gold seeker in 1851. Trained by a neighbor, Lola Montez ("What Lola wants, Lola gets"), at the age of six, Lotta became known as the "happy scamp," performing in mining camps up and down the coast of California and then into Nevada after the silver strikes. Her mother Mary Ann was her manager and she collected all the money, in gold, and carried her earnings in a huge bag. Lotta soon conquered all of America and became known as "The Nation's Darling." By the 1880s she was the highest paid actress in the States earning up to $5,000 a week. Her mother's big bag gave way to a steamer trunk and when that became impossible to carry, she started investing in real estate, race horses and bonds. The Crabtrees began supporting local charities, one of which, the Massachusetts Society for Aiding Discharged Prisoners is still receiving annual grants to this day!

   In terms of her accomplishments and career she is closer to Madonna than Nellie Cashman but I love it that her mother ran the who shebang and was her chaparone, which means she didn't have a lot of time for hanky panky.

   Lotta retired at the age of 45 and when she died in 1924 she left an estate worth $4 million dollars and established trusts to benefit veterans and others that still exists today! Oh, and her father never made a dime prospecting.

   I would really like to see her on the cover of our forthcoming book on Misbehavin' Women and I have been trying to come up with something wild and crazy and different from the usual Miss Behavin' females who are portrayed in books and on the screen.

Daily Whip Out: "A Whole Lotta Love"

   As mentioned, Lotta's mother discouraged her daughter from dating and although she had hordes of admirers, she never married. It's not clear, but when it comes to hanky panky, I think it's safe to say she had her share.

"My baby does the hanky panky, yeah, my baby does the hanky panky. My baby does the hanky panky. My baby does the hanky panky. Hey, my baby does the hanky panky."

—Tommy James & The Shondells, the first and second verse to their hit "Hanky Panky"

New Hatband Land & Lotta Lookin' Our Way

 April 8, 2022

   As you may know, I've got hundreds of hats. 

   Spied this old favorite the other day and decided I need a new straw with this wonderful hatband on it. I think this whole rig was created by Grant Optimo of Optimo Hats in Bisbee. Looks like something he would do. The saddle belonged to my great uncle John Guess, of Steins Pass fame. Here's a closer look.

Hatband Up Close And Uno-centric

   Isn't that just the coolest. Meanwhile, on the women cover dilemma. To me, the Leather & Lace, Grit & Grace, Grace & Grit titles are too cute by half. On the other hand, Wild Women of the Wild West is too sexist and offputting for Jana and quite a few women ("They weren't all whores!!!!"). What to do? I am working on a new cover painting this weekend (Hint: Lotta is smiling a little more devilishly and looking right at us) and I plan on Dan The Man creating a second cover on Monday. I will post here and I intend to send these two covers to the Nifty Fifty. That is the fifty intelligent Facebook folks who sent me their mailing addresses to get one of the new Bozecards. I will be asking them the same question.  I am looking for consensus, something I can, ahem, hang my hat on.

   Here's a sneak peek at my first Lotta revision.

Daily Whip Out: "Lotta Lookin' Our Way"

   My marketing whiz partner, Ken, says we are being stupid to NOT use the "Wild Women" title, but I agree with Jana that it's not going to grab the people (WOMEN!) we need. Jana says, "Your guys aren't going to buy this book. Their wives, mothers and girlfriends will." To which I have to say, if we're marketing to my guys (86% of our subscribers) and we have a women-centric title, how will the wives and mothers and girlfriends know about it? Perhaps looking over their husband's shoulder? Not totally convinced of that. Wish it were true. And you? What do you think?

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"Old Vaquero #7"

"It's easy to see the seven mistakes of others, but you do not see your own ten mistakes."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Sombrero Shadows & Light of My Life

 April 8, 2022

   Thanks to Lynda Sanchez of Lincoln, New Mexico for sending me the coolest sombrero photo, circa 1915. I studied it this morning at length, trying to learn from all those great faces, hiden in deep shadows.

Daily Whip Out: "Sombrero Shadows"

   And, here's the photo Lynda sent me:

Sombreros de la gente

   Oh, and just once I would like to see a Western where someone wears the hat style of the boy, far left, second row. Just so bizarre and kind of radical yet obviously accurate. Of course, if it was used in a Western you can bet a certain kind of uptight purist would no doubt start crowing about how innacurate it is and that nobody actually wore hats like this in the real Old West. Not sure why this gives me so much gleeful pleasure but it does.

Five Mule Deer Lit Up

When I went out to get the newspapers this morning, I jumped five deer chowing on the far side of our driveway. As soon as they saw me, they moved off fifty yards and that's where I captured them at the foot of Ratcliff Ridge.

Light of My Life

I call this next one Light of My Life, but when I sent it to Deena she said, "Yes, like Uno, I miss my turquoise pants" That's my daughter Deena in the turquoise pants in the photo Uno appears to be longingly looking at.

Actually Uno wants to grab the heads off those little decanters, and you will notice, he has already gotten Billy's head!

"I am here to live out loud."

—Emile Zola

Last Call for These Two Bozecards

 April 7, 2022

   Last call for these two Bozecards. I've got fifty each and picking them up at JC Printing this afternoon. Going to go fast. Just send me your mailing address to bozebell@twmag.com and they'll go out tomorrow.

The Humor Issue Bozecard

   And, this teaser Bozecard as well.

Grace And Grit Teaser Bozecard

   This was actually a mock up cover idea for our book, but I have since come up with a better title and design based on the "Amazon Syndrome," explained to me by Stuart Rosebrook: When someone searches for "women" or "Wild West" your book title better come up. So I got up this morning and whipped this out.

Wild West Women, Volume I

   This title was also suggested by my curator Kristi Jacobs and that threw me over the edge.

"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft."

—H.G. Wells

Miss Behavin' When The Levee Breaks

 April 6, 2022

   Some people wonder where exactly I get my inspiration from and here's a very good example.

Green Shades, Great Hat, Great Gal

   She's a distant neighbor and Ali Baker is on our property doing her landscape thing.

   Speaking of talented gals.

Daily Whip Out: "Elsa Study Number Two"

   And, here's another rough of a rough woman.

Daily Whip Out:

"Femme Fatale Study #9"

Playing For Change Rocks!

   I never really cared for Led Zep's version of "When The Levee Breaks," but when John Paul Jones collaborated with Play For Change to create an international version of the old 1929 blues classic, I flipped out. This is just the coolest song and I love all the rich solos both vocal and instrumental. 

   This cat, Sabastian Robertson playing at the end of the jetty on Mission Beach is one of the engineers on the song and is the son of Robbie Robertson of The Band fame. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0-WXUFY2k

"You can't change the beginning, but you can start where you are now and change the ending."

—C.S. Lewis

Three Artistic Amigos In Santa Fe & The Norsky Girl On The Flying Merkel

 April 5, 2022

   Well, time flies when you own an art gallery. Or, used to own an art gallery called Due West in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Art Opening of The Bang Gang

(Ouch! that didn't age well!)

Thom Ross, BBB and Buckeye Blake

April 4, 2011

   God bless you Thom Ross for making the effort and the investment. Look at these three semi-starving artists! Crazy. Love the pocket protector, Kid.   

The Norsky Girl On The Flying Merkel

A Flying Merkel Motorcycle 1911-1915

   She didn’t look the part. In fact, she was very shy and staid, some would even say, a "Spinster" type. And nobody in their mildest dreams would have thought of Minnie as a speedster, shooting down the corn row roads near Algona, Iowa at a whopping 25 miles per hour! But she had a bee in her bonnet and she was on a lutafisk and leftsa mission and lord help the highway patrolman who tried to stop her!

"Never ask a woman eating ice cream straight out of the carton how she's doing."

—A Male Survivor Saying

The Good, The Bad & The Worthy

 April 4, 2022

   Here's a sneak peek at the next Bozecard.

The Good Women of The Wild West

   We know all about the bandits and bad boys, the gunfighters and goons, but not the women who held it all together with grit and spit. The reality is plain: there never would have been a settled West without the women—Native and Mexican women here first; Black and White women who followed--all settling the vast, unknown and scary lands beyond the Mississippi River.

   But they've never got their due. If they're mentioned at all, it's as whores or tough-living Calamity Janes.

   Here's the good news: You don't have to dig deep to find remarkable stories of the remarkable women of the West—you just have to care enough to dig.

  We cared enough. Meet some of the women who should be in every history book.

—Jana Bommersbach

The Good, The Bad & The Worthy

   I agree with my longtime friend and co-author, Jana Bommersbach, that the tough-living bad girls have gotten too much attention in the past and I believe she's absolutely right about including some new found worthy women. And she has found plenty! Still, I knew we had to cover the bad girls and the wild women as well, so, we've included both, to put them in context to each other and hopefully bridge the gap between the two. We both agree on one thing: 

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

High School Memory Loss

 April 3, 2022

   Stop saying, "They didn't teach us that in school." Yes, they did. You were talking.

   Special thanks to Randie Lee O'Neal who posted the above exchange with his fifth grade teacher, Corliss Siders. I so resemble this remark it's not even funny. I have a hunch I am not alone.

Reclamation Nation

   I don't think I've ever ran across a piece of my artwork that I didn't think I could improve and make it better. When it involves unframed work, well, guess what happens?

Daily Whip Out:

"Honkytonk Sue Still Rides Tall"

(reworked this morning)

   She was tough but it wasn't enough. She lost at love and some very bad things came her way, but she survived a cultural tsunami, barely, and she ended up where she wanted to be, which is alone on the land she fought for. She paid for her freedom and, the way she sees it, she is perfectly able and willing to take care of herself to the very end, which is not all that far off. In spite of it all, she feels blessed and she asks for no other blessing.

    She has one more hurdle and it is a doozy.

Last Fandango at The Heatwave Cafe

   The encroaching condos and the strip malls have put a stranglehold on the last outpost of the Honkytonk era, and, so, before Chata shutters the windows and closes the doors for the last time, she has put out the word for one final fandango.

The Heatwave Cafe, circa 1977

   Everyone wants to know if Sue will show, but her nearest neighbor, Buzzy Blair, is doubtful, reminding all the oldtimers that Sue has long ago given up drinking and she has sworn off men and she even gave up on Country Swing. In her mind, all three had let her down.

Sue Cuttin' A Rug Back in The Day

   If you must know, everything at the Last Fandango at the Heatwave Cafe came off without a hitch, unless you count Chata's pendejo grandson who came back from Mexico with some Bufo Alvarius Toad Venom.

   Don't look at me like this is news to you. I told you this at least twice before and if you don't remember, it's probably because you were talking.

"Unless he's wearing a diaper, you can't change him."

—Honkytonk Sue

Give That Dog A Bone And the Real Women of The Wild West Are Finally Coming Home

 April 2, 2022

   Got back from Flag at about three yesterday. Picked up Uno at Doggie Daycare and brought him home and gave him a bone. He sat out in the breezeway on this throne and shot me this look. 

Uno Has A Bone to Pick

   Is it a "Thank you" look? Or, a "Don't Think This Let's You Off The Hook" look? If I had to guess, probably somewhere in the middle.

Dogging It, Part II

   It's been on a long quest with this subject matter:

Daily Scratchboard Whip Outs:

"The Real Women of The Wild West"

   And, getting closer on the teaser copy as well:

   Coming this fall, a groundbreaking new book about the Real Women of the Wild West from Jana Bommersbach and Bob Boze Bell. Lavishly illustrated with art and photographs, many never before published, and newly discovered history about women who have never received the due they deserve, this book will be a benchmark in setting the record straight, once and for all.

Daily Whip Out: "Grace & Grit"

Here's How Jana Puts It In The Foreword

   "We know all about the bandits and bad boys, the gunfighters and goons, but not the women who held it all together with grit and spit. The reality is plain: there never would have been a settled West without the women—Native and Mexican women here first; Black and White women who followed--all settling the vast, unknown and scary lands beyond the Mississippi River.

   "But they've never got their due. If they're mentioned at all, it's as whores or tough-living Calamity Janes.

   "Here's the good news: You don't have to dig deep to find remarkable stories of the remarkable women of the West—you just have to care enough to dig.

   "We cared enough. Meet some of the women who should be in every history book."

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

—Someone Who Spoke The Truth