Kids Dig History And Jay Dusard Gets His Due

 March 16, 2025

   It was a total drag coming down here. From Phoenix, we fought multiple freeway stops, two accidents, one of them serious with an overturned truck and a shoe in the middle of the high speed lane. Rained all the way. Aggressive A-hole drivers going 95 and swerving in and out of lanes. A couple times, I swore to myself this would be my last trip down. When we got to the Best Western (such an ironic name!) the little family style restaurent attached to the motel is now a niteclub and the "free" breakfast is now dispensed in a water closet style room behind the lobby with the plastic spoons and the microwaved, plastic eggs The festival didn't issue parking passes to the vendors this year so Stuart, who drove us down, had to drop me off behind the student unioin with a dolly and ten cases of mags and books while he went searching for a parking space on the east end of campus

   And did I mention it was still sprinkling and overcast and chilly?

   Got to our booth and loaded all our back issues on the table and then, slowly, the magic starts to happen. 

   In the crush of humanity, most everyone ignores us and walks by on the way to somewhere else. But I would venture that out of every 500 who walk by, there is someone who spies us, then walks up smiling and at that moment I launch the big question:

   Do you like history?

The Kid Likes History!

   This is worth entire trip to see the look on that kid's face. And, he isn't alone. For the first time in memory we've had youngsters wanting to look at an actual magazine dedicated to history. This is a beautfiul thing.

This Mama Got One for Her Son!

Even the Young Women Are Into It!

Mama Got One for Hija

   Meanwhile, catching up with Friday night. We had our celebratory dinner to honor our 2025 True Westerner of The Year Award, and here is the video we played:

Jay Dusard Is A Proud Booger

   Oh, and all the music was written and recorded by Nils Lofgrin. Just the best.

"I'm just a little ol' booger."

—Jay Dusard

Kids Love True West at Tucson Book Festival

 March 15, 2025

   Had a great day at the Tucson Festival of The West today. I feel hopeful because more than one kid came up and told me they are interested in history. Look at this little guy.

Youngster Forces Entire Family

to Watch Him Choose A True West Magazine

   He wasn't alone. More pics later.

Oh, Say Can You See Me In Young Guns III?

 March 14, 2025

   A friend of mine, Paul Hoylen, from Deming, New Mexico just sent me this news item from Santa Fe.

Emilio Estevev to Direct Young Guns III

   Cool. So, I forwarded it on to the guy who created the franchise and asked if he was part of this new effort and he responded:

"Of course, Amigo. I own the rights. We want you to do a cameo."

—John Fusco

   Well, you know me, as soon as I read this the wheels started turning.

A Scene From Young Guns III I'd Like to See

Daily Whip Out: "Old Kid Crazy Coot"

(He's 78 and if you stand near him you will discover he knows everything there is to know  about Billy the Kid )

SCENE: Interior of The Billy the Kid Bar, 1951 

Old Kid Krazy Coot: "All these fancy historians don't know jack diddly about the real Billy the Kid like I do!"

Betty The Bartender: "We wasn't talking about Billy the Kid, you jackass. We're talking about atom bomb testing in Alamagordo!"

Old Kid Krazy Coot: "You know, Billy the Kid rode all through that country before it got all bomb rangy. I rode in there following the same path he took. Tracked the Kid clear through to Crow Flat. Nobody knows what I know!"

Grizzled Miner Sitting Next to the Old Kid Krazy Coot: "Sweet Mother of God, can't you talk about anything other than Billy the Kid?"

Daily Whip Out: "Grizzled Miner"

Old Kid Krazy Coot: "Of course I can! What do you think I am? Some one-note Jimmy Dolan? Ask me something. Anything!"

Grizzled Miner: "What do you think about abortion?"

Old Kid Krazy Coot: "Are you kiddin' me? Hey, speaking of the Kid, did you know Billy was tried for murder in this very room?"

MULTIPLE shots ring out and a limp body is dragged out the swinging doors onto the Mesilla Plaza for the buzzards to pick at.

"Cut! Scene! Print!"

—Emilio Estevev

My Life On The Turntable of Life

 March 13, 2025

   Rounding up all the last images we need for our Mountain Meadows coverage.

Mountain Man Jim Bridger

   Meanwhile, still noodling dust riders.

Daily Whip Out: "Amber Riders #86" 

   Oh, and regarding the hand written note at top: I have been age 33 and-one-third, and I have been 45 and now I am 78, so I feel like I have lived all the old turntable speeds.

"Unsafe at Any Speed."

—Ralph Nader referring to the Corvair

Historic Lee's Ferry In The Rearview

 March 12, 2025

   Nothing makes me much happier than when something from the past reverberates across the ages and resonates into my life in the present.

   In the next issue of True West we are featuring a rare photo of Buffalo Bill at Lee's Ferry in 1894. This will be in our coveted Opening Shot department, where readers can take time to look at the minute details of an old photograph, printed extra large—across two pages—so you can really dive in and savor the details.

That's Bill in the Checked Vest

   For my editorial I thought it might be fun to revisit my own first experience at the historic site back when I joined an expedition as a cartoonist-journalist at New Times Weekly. I was assigned to cover The 1982 Recession Artists River Trip put on by two Phoenix College art professors, Merrill and Jeanne Mahaffey. The ten day trip down the Colorado River and into the Grand Canyon National Park was a crazy adventure and, of course, I took a ton of photos, but, I'll be damned if I can find them now! So I reached out to the Mahaffeys and they couldn't locate theirs either. Finally, when I was about to give up I got an email from Jeanne with the name of a photographer on the trip, James Cowlin. I called him and after catching up on the last forty-plus years, he sent me this:

Same Cliffs 88 years later
Photo by James Cowlin

    Yes, we are on the same shore Buffalo Bill's crew were approaching only we were loading the most important ingredient for our trip and that is beer. That is a big stack of the stuff on the nearest boat and the other one was stacked sky high with the stuff as well. I seem to remember we brought 22 cases of beer. Priorities, Man.

   I asked Jeanne if she could ID anyone in the photo and to give us a bit of the back story. . .

  "Around 1974 when Merrill and I first started dating, we took some students from Phoenix College up to the First Grand Canyon Paint-Off.  we painted from the south Rim and a park ranger did the judging at camp.  After Merrill started to seriously paint the canyon and was commissioned to do the large 'Ultimate Landscape' for Terminal 3 at Sky Harbor, our lawyer suggested we join one of his yearly trips down the river.  (He retired after 51 consecutive trips.  I produced a video of his adventures several years ago which premiered at the Historical Society.) I think Merrill and I did several more trips before we decided to ask some artist friends to join us. Ted Hatch agreed to accept half the cost in art and the show was exhibited in several places starting at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. As for the photo, you are right about Billy Ellwanger, the head boatman (standing in the nearest boat) and Merrill (in the baseball cap, foreground). At the bottom left is Karl Dowhie, a former student of Merrill.  Above him is William La Jeunesse who since is an international reporter for Fox News with a questionable reputation!  He lost his plate and utensils early on and had to eat his meals with a spoon and a tin can. Most nights he simply dropped down and slept on the sand. I see Wilma Parker who is an artist from San Francisco and showed at Suzanne Brown along with Genevieve Reckling and Anne Taylor. We all met down at Lee's Ferry the night before the trip and painted the boat."

—Jeanne Mahaffey

   Yes, I am somewhere in this photo loading my gear and no doubt intersecting with the ghost of John D. Lee. You know normally I like to walk where they walked, but, in this case, I was wading where they waded.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

—Mark Twain 

Tucson Bound With The Mad Hatter

 March 11, 2025

   Getting ready for our annual jaunt down to the Tucson Festival of Books this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Always a fun trip for me to meet all you readers of books. Such a special breed of humans, you are.

   Also, if you are within driving distance, I would love to see you on Friday night.

   I'm finishing up the next Classic Gunfights, which is a bit of a one-sided fight because one of the protagonists was up against a firing squad. Here is an old engraving of the scene at Mountain Meadows, Utah in 1877.

At left, John D. Lee sits on his coffin as the military positions three wagons in a semi-circle to shield the shooters (note the U.S. tarp wrapped around the closest wagon on the right.

(from a photo)

Note, the photo cuts off the wagon tarp

Guilty As Sin

   I'm also going to do mini-bios on all Lee's co-conspirators who skated clear. You know, like this guilty as sin compadre.

Daily Whip Out: "Isaac Haight"

   If you noticed the hat montage yesterday in the Scott Baxter photo set up, you might appreciate this old gem.

The Original Mad Hatter

   "Bob Boze Bartholomew, Our childhood friend Dr. Seuss saw you coming. This book, a favorite in my childhood, was first published in 1938! If you haven’t read it, you should. I might point out as well that Fred LaBour, member of the Western singing and comedy group Riders in the Sky, goes by the stage name Too Slim and is introduced as “The Man With A Thousand Hats.” The Riders have been members of the Grand Ol’ Opry since the late ‘80s. Getting ready for the book festival. I expect you’re partnering with Western Writers again. If so, you’ll be in front of the Student Union. As the old Wobbly song reminds us, “you can’t scare me I’m sticking with the union, I’m sticking with the union til the day I die!”

—Greg Scott 

"Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs."

—David Benburion

Hats Off to Scott Baxter

 March 10, 2025

   I had a photo crew show up at my house this morning bright and early. I am being inducted into the Arizona Historymakers and part of the induction ceremony, next October 25, is to have my formal portrait taken by iconic Arizona photographer, Scott Baxter. Scott thought it might be appropriate—and somewhat zany—to photograph me with a gaggle of my favorite hats from my hat collection, placed behind me. Here is how the makeshift studio looked this morning on our back patio.

Hats Off-Hats On

That is Zach, at left, who was the gaffer on the shoot. Took most of the morning, but I really liked what I saw.

Scott Baxter Shows Me The Raw Results

(Uno approves)

"Hats off to you, sir."

—BBB

John D. Lee Goes Down Grinning

 March 9, 2025

   Like most human atrocities, it didn't take much. My take on the Mountain Meadows Debacle is someone had a half-baked plan (probably John D. Lee and someone high up in the Mormon church at Cedar City) and encourage their Native American wards to attack their enemies, and their well-meaning-looks-good-on-paper plan gave way to a botched Paiute raid with comic, if not tragic, consequences all around. Or, put more accurately, everyone on the Mormon side of the fence skated except John D. Lee. 

John D. Lee sitting on his casket mere minutes before he was executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows, March 21, 1877.

   Note the bemused grin. The guy had sand. The authorities parked three wagons in a semi-circle, then hung blankets between the wagons to create a blind, from which the firing squad would stand in the center and shoot the guilty party. For his part, John D. Lee sat on a coffin of rough pine boards (built on the spot with wood hauled out to the site in a wagon). Lee sat on the coffin facing his executioners. They were reportedly armed with nonmilitary Springfield "needle guns." After a prayer by a Methodist minister (!) Marshal William Nelson put a blindfold on Lee. When the time came, eye-witnesses said Lee raised both hands above his head and reportedly said, "Center my heart, boys!" At exactly 11:00 A.M. Nelson gave the order, "Ready, aim, fire!" and a "line of flame shot out from the wagons." There was no moan or yell, John D. Lee simply fell quietly into his coffin, his feet still resting on the ground.

   As Will Bagley puts it in his fine book, "Blood of The Prophets" at the end of this "extraordinary spectacle" a correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune admitted it was hard to determine if Lee was a martyr or simply a callused, obtuse old man, by writing, "I know not, but he died game."

"I have been treacherously betrayed and sacrificed in the most cowardly manner by those who should have been my friends."

—John D. Lee in his last message to his children

Female Rain, Cow Dog Fun And Manhood at Monument Valley

 March 8, 2025

   The Navajos call it a "female rain." A steady, gentle, slow-moving rain accompanied by low clouds and mist. Rained like that all day yesterday. Still socked in with low cloud cover late in the day when I finally got out on the road with Uno. We had a brisk walk in the cool air and our silver lab hit all the waterholes on the way up and back.

Puddle Jumper

   He also had fun teasing the cattle in the Barro's corral complex. Jumping around in fake attacks and then going nose to nose with some affection.

Uno Cow Fun Nose to Nose

Daily Whip Out:

"Monument Valley Manhood"

"Sometimes it's hard to see the future with all that knowledge in the way."

—Old Vaquero Saying

A Hidden Rider Meets A Special Triple B Poster Offer

 March 7, 2025

   More dust for the money.

Daily Whip Out: "Dust Up Hidden Rider" 

No can see? How about now?

Daily Whip Out: "Dust Up Close Up"

  I am without a doubt a late bloomer. Or, perhaps a more accurate term would be a procrastination bloomer. I have always done everything at the last possible minute. That said, here is the view from where I stand now. What I thought was important when I was younger turned out not to be. What I thought I wanted turned out to be denied to me. What I was given instead turned out to be better than all of the above. The blessing is to realize this. And, for that I thank the universe for denying me my youthful desires and giving me something even better. An appreciation for what we have now.

And Here's What We Have Now

   If you saw Dan The Man's Two-Lane Tales yesterday with the groovy Jugs Iced Free tidbit angle, I have a couple questions for you. Would you like a big ol' poster of this?

Triple B Smartass Poster Offer

   And, while we're on the subject, here are two more Dan The Man poster designs for your consideration.

Hometown Heroes

Headlights & Taillights

   Might look real nice over your workbench or in your fireplace.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Here's to Dust In Your Eyes!

 March 6, 2025

   Got some rain this morning. Blustery out, but it's cozy in my studio with a fire in the Big Bug Creek potbellied stove.

   Here's a kind of crazy fact: Dan The Man Harshberger and I have been working on zany graphics for, ahem, 53 years! And counting. Yikes! This is a pretty wild stat and almost defies gravity, yes? Anyway, in all that time, I don't think he has created anything zanier than this.

   I will say I am a lucky kid to have him as a partner in zane. Of course, we go back even farther than the beginning of the Razz (1972). Here we are ten years earlier trying to make a Montgomery Wards Mo-Ped look cool. I know, I know, not really cutting it, but we should get points for this being in Dan's family front yard on Chambers Avenue on Hilltop, outside Kingman.

Mo-ped Madness, 1962

(flattops by Chuy at Bond's Barbershop)

   Of course, both of us were in love with the same girl and that would this hot honey:

Annette in a poodle skirt gets down!

   One of the joys of being on social media is enjoying the collective knowledge of my friends. Yesterday, I Googled "Singing Cowboys" and grabbed the first image I liked and posted it without any knowledge of who it was or where it was from. Well, thanks to a certain geekhead musician who reads this blog, here is the back story.

   "Dude, On October 6, 1929 Ken Maynard became the first singing cowboy star with the release of the part-talking film The Wagon Master, a Universal Maynard Production, in which he sang 'The Lone Star Trail' and 'The Cowboy’s Lament'.  The movie was 40% silent footage. This was Ken’s first starring role. In this picture he’s serenading his co-star Edith Roberts playing, or at least holding, what looks like a sweet classic Martin guitar. Ten years previously the first commercial recording of ‘traditional’ cowboy songs on a double faced Columbia disc introduced 'Jesse James' and 'The Dying Cowboy'sung by Bentley Ball. Even with expanding radio play, many scholars attribute the nationwide introduction of cowboy songs through movie westerns for their prodigious growth in popularity in the 1930s. Shout out to an old scholar/writer/performer amigo Jim Bob Tinsley for most of the above. There’s always more if you’re interested. Can’t promise it’ll do anything for helping edit a magazine but it can certainly make you smarter and happier."

—Greg Scott

Famous Last Words, Part XIII

I'll never forget my grandfather's last words to me. "Are you still holding the ladder?"

Another Dust Up From The Duke of Dust

   I don't think it's any secret, but I can't get enough of dust, at least on paper.

Daily Whip Out: "Sky High Dust Storm"

"Conceive an idea. Then stick to it. Those who hang on are the only ones who amount to anything. You can do anything you please. It's the way it's done that makes the difference."

—Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Communication Breakdown (it's always the same)

 March 5, 2025

   We are having communication problems. People on our staff are somehow not being invited to meetings, or, not receiving an invite on the platform of preference because of some glitch in the system, resulting in a lack of communication, which leads to comments like, "I am an editor and I will not be treated like this! People need to respond when I send an email!" And, to which I replied, "Yes, I agree. You often do not reply to my emails and I feel exactly the same way!"

   I got this advice from my family therapist wife: "Do not use 'you' messages. It turns people off."

What Does America Need Right Now?

   An artist friend of mine sent me a put down of Zellenski and he told me it was "hilarious." When I sent him a Bansky cartoon of Putin and Trump in a love embrace with my counter comment, "No, this is hilarious," another artist friend, Buckeye Blake, saw our exchange, and he emailed me privately and said:

"Man, we need some fresh air in this country, Rise above!"

—Buckeye Blake

   When I responded with "Agreed. Any suggestions?"

Buckeye said, "More singing cowboys."

   It doesn't get any better than THAT! Too true for school. And, here's one more for good measure.

   Damn, where are all the singing cowboys? We really, really need them right now.

"Back where a friend is a friend. . ."

—Gene Autry, Back In The Saddle Again

"Communication breakdown, it's always the same, communication breakdown, it's drivin' me insane."

—Led Zeppelin

Are Artists Born That Way? Or, Can People Be Taught to Be Artists?

 March 4, 2025

     I was recently asked, "Do I believe some people are born artists?" Not really. There is this stupid old wive's tale—a holdover superstition from the distant past—about "artists" having been born with divine attributes and abilities. People who believe that often proudly say, "He didn't have any artistic training." Imagine someone saying that about their doctor: "My heart surgeon never had any training!". The premise being God created certain people as artists and it's magical and you can't teach or learn that. When someone says that, I am tempted to respond: "You sure know a lot for being so damn dumb." Of course, I rarely say that because I am somewhat fond of my physical well being, but you get the picture. I think when you boil it down, some people need more attention than others and they find out that they can get their father's attention if they draw good (guilty as charged).

   The other saw that grinds me is, "Did you copy that?" which is a thinly disguised way of saying, "Did you cheat and copy someone else's work?" Frankly, we all copied something, preferably an actual object or human being but I am of the opinion you can't copy enough. That's where the learning is. On the other hand, you can't steal another artist's image and claim it as your own.

Daily Whip Out: "After Van Gogh"

which is a fancy way of saying I borrowed the van Gogh style and tried to do it justice

   On the other hand, I get this a lot and it's mostly used as a complement: "That looks like a photograph," as if the entire goal of art is to duplicate what a camera sees. Granted, there is an entire branch of the Fine Art field called Photo Realism, which, by the way adheres to the principal, "Yes I did copy that, and in fact I photo-projected it and then traced it onto a canvas and methodically copied the photograph until it looks exactly like a photograph." Not my cup of tea, but it does show some skill. You know like whittling or pie baking. 

"Tracings Tell Tales That Paintings Make Secret"

   Yes, that is Ed Mell, posing for me in his studio with my hat on, mocking a certain Cowboy Artist

So, that pretty much sums up my ideas about anyone being somehow born with artistic talent. Actually, the opposite is true: there are people who are born with a desire to be an artist and produce good art and those people are known as Every Artist Who Ever Lived.

Uno Is Still Kind of Unimpressed

    Here's what I believe to be true. Anyone can be an artist and live the artist lifestyle if you are willing to do these four things:

• Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

• Draw every day without hope, without despair.

• Fail as often as you can because a winner is just a loser who tried one more time.

• Everything you want is on the other side of fear. So try to do something that scares you every day.

   If anyone you know wants to be an artist there's nothing we can do to stop them. And that is a good thing.

Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings."

—John Baldessari

El Hombre de Chichimequillas

 March 3, 2025

   I actually love to go to parties where I am a minority because I get to witness how others like to celebrate. Assuming, of course, it's not one of those parties where you get your ass kicked because you don't fit in, and I think you know the kind of parties I'm talking about. In this particular case I'm talking about partying down with friends who are from a remote area of Mexico. You know, like El Hombre de Chichimequillas. And that would be this guy.

The Birthday Boy

   My neighbor, Tom, and I were there to celebrate the 60th birthday of Ismael Garnica-Rizo.

The Garnica Brothers

      We had great food. . .

Holy Mole!

 Great shots of tequila!

Tom Gets Down With His Bad Self!

Chichimequillas is near Leon and

San Miguel de Allende

northwest of Mexico City

And great music. . .

   The live band is actually three dudes: a tuba player and two drummers, playing along with a computerized orchestra thru speakers and it sounded totally LIVE! Crazy! Or, maybe it's just the tequila listening?

"One shot, two shot, three, Tequila floor."

—Brooks & Dunn

The Oldest Living Cartoonist In Front of The Alleged Oldest House In America

 March 2, 2025

   I love juxtapositions, especially as it relates to history. For example, here is the alleged oldest house in the United States.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, taken in 1885

(this dwelling was built in the 1600s)

   And here, for your viewing pleasure is the oldest living cartoonist in Arizona in front of the oldest house in America.

BBB In Front of The Alleged

Oldest House In America

   I'm saying "alleged" oldest house because there are nitpickers out there who claim this building was never a "house," in the domicile sense, so there you go. And, if you want to get all technical, there's a cartoonist in Queen Creek who claims to be older than me, but I seriously question his cartoon credentials (that's shorthand for He can't draw for beans!), you know, just like old geezers are prone to do.

   And, here is that same cartoonist at Bonanza Creek, outside of Santa Fe, standing just down the street from the church where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot his director.

BBB at Bonanza Creek

(I was there for a taping of "Gunslingers")

   And, here's a taste of the results of my talking head:

Gunslingers: Tom Horn The Tracker Hunts Humans

  So, as you can clearly see, I've stood in some pretty serious places.

"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

—Old Vaquero Saying

An Unlikely Hero In The Mountain Meadows Madness

 March 1, 2025

   First of all, it wasn't just Utah. In 1857, the whole country was up in arms, severely paranoid, angry as hell, and everyone from coast to coast was at each other's throats and giving idiots everywhere "what for." Sound familiar?

Daily Whip Out:

"Reading, Writing And Rewriting History"

   And, out of all this Mountain Meadows Madness came someone seeking the simple truth. And why hasn't she received the accolades and respect she deserves? As my Norwegian grandmother Minnie liked to say, "If you want to see who the true idiot is, go look in the closest mirror." Yes, at the end of the day we are all pretty damn stupid—just on different subjects—and the least we can do is acknowledge when someone had the cajones to stand up to rampant ignorance. And in the case of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, that someone was a progressive Democrat living in Saint George, Utah? Wow. I know what you are thinking: How in the hell could that happen? An actual progressive Democrat in Utah? Well, it's a miracle and a curse, all wrapped up in a big, fat conundrum disguised as a righteous bow.

An Unlikely Hero

   Damn, I love her. And I intend to honor her in the only way I know how and that is to paint a picture of her that even idiots like me can understand.

Daily Whip Out Study #1:

"She Stood Facing Into A Stiff Wind"

   You know who she is because I have been bragging about her for a couple weeks now, but soon enough, when our next issue hits the newsstands, a wider audience will know about her brave work and then, just maybe, as a tribute to her courageous efforts to find the truth, we can all begin to heal our national wounds.

"The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest."
—Old Vaquero Saying