The Ha Ha Manual

 February 17, 2026

   Like most grandfathers I think about leaving behind some advice, or a how-to-manual for my grandkids. They call me Grandpa Ha Ha. Here is a start:

Grandpa Ha Ha with all his future

Humor Masters

The Ha Ha Manual

   First of all, you won't make more stupid mistakes than I have made. That would be impossible. I even made some stupid mistakes twice because I couldn't believe the results the first time. So, remember this:

"There is nothing to be learned from the second kick of a mule."

—Mark Twain

• Whatever you believe, the opposite is also true. (tell a good story to go with this)

   That's a decent start and there's more, but first let me jettison a certain editorial obligation.

"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."

—Carl Jung

Sage Advice From An Old Man And More New Old Vaqueros

 February 17, 2026

   A couple of co-workers—and a family member—have challenged me on giving up my True West title and they want to know why am I stepping down this December? Truth be known, my role model is Anna Wintour. I don't know if you have heard but after four decades,  Anna Wintour, the editor-in-Chief at Vogue magazine stepped down this year to make way for new blood. She is 76. I just don't think someone who is 80—and that will be me on December 19—should try and steer any magazine on a cutting edge course in this current market. It's time for new blood.

   My mantra has always been, lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!

   On the other hand, if there's one thing I can never get enough of, it's the world of the old vaquero. I just dig that time frame and I don't think it gets the attention it deserves.

   And speaking of people who don't get enough attention in that time frame, why do the Apache warriors hog all our respect and admiration?

Daily Whip Out: "Apache Temptress"

   I have known an Apache beauty, or two, and they are just as formidable as any Chiricahua Brave.

Daily Whip Out:

"Old Vaquero Under The Sugarloaf Brim"

Daily Whip Out:

"Old Vaquero In The Corral"

New Old Vaquero Sayings

   And leave it to Dan The Man to design these whip outs into a clever design mix, like this:

   And this. . .

   There's a ton more, but you knew that.

I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake up letter."

—Steven Wright

Passing The True West Torch, Part II

 February 15, 2026

   I've had some interesting responses to my remarks about passing the torch and here is some clarity.

Passing The Torch, Part II

   For me, True West has always been personal. I bought my first issue as a kid in Kingman, and it never really let go of me. So when the opportunity came along in 1999, I did something only a history nut would do: I called a few friends, we pulled together the necessary resources, and we purchased True West—along with its sister title Old West and the full bundle of publishing assets—out of Stillwater, Oklahoma, then moved it to Cave Creek, Arizona, where it has prospered ever since.

   I’ve had great help from a ton of people who believed in the mission: to keep our love of American history alive. And, to reiterate, I have had the time of my life doing it!

   Now it’s time to find the next history nut—with the passion, the fresh energy, and a deep respect for this story-rich magazine—to take the reins and guide True West into its next chapter.

   True West was founded in 1953, and the road to 100 years is right around the corner. We don’t need a caretaker. We need new blood and new ideas—someone who honors the heritage, loves the readers, and wants to build what comes next.

   Do you—or someone you know—have what it takes to take True West to the century mark?

   Ken and I are looking for someone who can take the magazine to the next level. I hope if you are interested, you have someone with the ponies to carry it off, just like I did 27 years ago.

"Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths."

—Simon Sinek

Mini Whip Outs & Praising The Past

 February 14, 2026

   Good things have happened on this date.

It is Arizona Statehood Day

   And, I must admit I love this damn place with all my heart.

Hopeless Mini-Whip Outs

   Someone gifted me a mini-sketchbook and I resisted using it because it seemed too small and cramped, but one day, in quasi-desperation, I decided to use it as a loosening up tool. 

Size Matters

(a regular sized watercolor paper is on the bottom, my big-sized sketchbook is on the right and my mini-sketchbook is on the left, with a big, fat, fanbrush pointing the way between the two)

   So I grabbed my large fan brush, above, and blocked in some color, without hope, without despair. And. . .

Mini-Gasline Break

   I totally dig it now and use it often to loosen up before getting serious about effort and expectations. Here are a few of those hopeless pages. 

Mini-Ghost Cleavage

Mini-Slug Queen

Mini-Gearhead

   Of course, there's tons more, but you get the picture.

Passing The Torch

   I will be eighty this year and it's time to start thinking about passing the True West torch on to someone who can carry this venerable publication to the century mark. I have had great help from a ton of people who believed in the mission: to keep our love of American history alive. Yes, I have carried it when no one else wanted it and I have had the time of my life, but it's time to give someone else a shot at this. We need new blood and new ideas. Do you know anybody who is worthy of this gig?

"It's not what you look at, it's what you see."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Storm Clouds And 100 Years of Kickin' It! Plus, How Many Times Has Wyatt Earp Been On The Cover of True West?

 February 13, 2026

   Looked like it might storm this morning.

   But these dramatic clouds petered out and we got nothing. Welcome to Arizona.

   Otherwise, lots going on, including this little event.

   Full Disclosure: the Dolan Ellis quote was a smart-assed placeholder. He never said those words, but it is kind of funny. On the other hand, Kathy Radina did, in fact, say her quote with some emphasis. Keep in mind, she has to live with me doing these books (15 so far!) on a day to day basis and it can be, how can I say this diplomatically, not fun!

   Oh, yes, and it's Friday The Thirteenth! But you already knew that.

   I have been asked to review my friend's book, Ride The Devil's Herd by John Boessenecker. It was a fun exercise and it made me realize a couple things: I have been chasing the Wyatt Earp story for six decades. And this led me to wonder how many times have we featured the part-time lawman on the cover of True West?

   Okay, I just counted. And we have featured this guy 17 times on the cover since I took the reins (and Doc Holliday 9 times!). Ouch! That is more than enough of that!

   Speaking of which, I can't leave well enough alone. . .

Daily Revised Whip Out: "Into The Blue II"

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth. Because the truth is never just one thing is it? Life is layered, contradictory, always in flux. To try and pin it down is like trying to catch wind in your hands. But through story, through emotion, we get close to something that feels real.”

—Doris Lessing, “The Golden Notebook”

How Valuable Is Courage?

 February 12, 2026

   I took another swing at a certain, lovable, south of the border cowboy:

Daily Revised Whip Out: 

"New Old Vaquero In Red"

"To care enough is the beginning of courage."

—Old Vaquero Saying

   Speaking of courage, my friend John Boessenecker uncovered some very unpleasant facts about the Earp boys for his book, Ride The Devil's Herd:

“All had seen the inside of a jail. Wyatt in Arkansas and Illinois, Jim in Montana, Virgil in Iowa, and Morgan in Illinois and Missouri. Wyatt and Jim were jailbreakers. Wyatt, Jim, and Morgan had all been pimps. Virgil had been charged with both arson and fraud.”

—John Boessenecker

  Ouch! Hard to believe anyone could recover from this public expose and shaming, but somehow, some way, Wyatt Earp keeps rising back to the top, perhaps because of this simple fact: courage never goes out of style. And, when push comes to shove, apparently, we’ll take the blemishes with the bravery.

   All of which brings up our distorted notions about the past. We all romanticize the Old West and sometimes we foolishly convince ourselves that we are living in the wrong era.

"I exaggerated the vitality and beauty of the past and ignored its squalor and cruelty and morbid greed. If I was transported back there, I would loathe it. The stupidity and waste would suffocate me or make me insane."

—Ian McEwan, What We Can Know

We Are Somewhere Between Autocracy and Democracy

 February 11, 2026

   Got a request from Buckeye Blake to send my Vincent van Gogh vs. Rene Secretan Classic Gunfight coverage to Steve S. in Capitan, New Mexico. So I did.

CG Layout: "A Murder of Crows"

(The true story of how Vincent van Gogh died)

    I had forgotten how good it is.

    I realized today we are all dancing between opposites. Take autocracy and democracy. How do you get efficiency over anarchy? In the olden days chiefdoms answered that question by creating security against roving bands of bandits.       

   Democracy, on the other hand, is granting governing authority to the people or to governing officials through free elections.  A scholar, Mancur Olson introduced the term "stationary bandits," as opposed to the "roaming bandits" that dominate anarchies. Wow. It all makes sense to me now. When democracy seems to be giving away too much power to people who make you uncomfortable, you slide towards autocracy, where a single person tells those upstarts to back off and straighten up and fly right, or else.

   Okay, and here is the second spread of the Van Gogh murder investigation.

CG Layout 2: "A Murder of Crows"

Daily Whip Out: "Freight Train Clouds"

   This is a scene of a storm I witnessed on a trip to New Mexico some years ago. As I was motoring eastward, just around the corner from Magdalena, I soon dropped down into the slot canyon that drains into the town of Socorro,  and it was there I witnessed a fast moving storm that went right over my truck like a freight train. It was so magnificent, I had to pull over and get out and watch it. I imagine some of the passing locals muttered, "Oh, look Honey, another damn Zonie looking skyward and drooling." But, I didn't care.   

"Devote the rest of your life to making progress."

—Epictetus

I Still Seek The Magic From Old Photos

 February 10, 2026

   The art thing that I still seek to this day is, if not mastery, an attempt to capture the vagueness of old photos. This desire and quest no doubt stems from the thousands of old, damaged photos I have looked at and studied ever since I bought my first True West magazine from Desert Drugs in downtown Kingman in 1957. Of course, 42 years later, that obsession took a fortuitous turn.

Our first cover of TW in the fall of 1999

(actually for the January 2000 issue)

   Yes, when I illustrate stories for the magazine, I want them to have an authentic, Old West patina.

Daily Whip Out: "Wyatt On The Phone"

Daily Whip Out: "As Time Went On"

Daily Whip Out: "Vague Tony"

   And, yes, sometimes I miss. I have been accused of doing "finger paintings" in the magazine and I hate to admit it but it has some merit since I am trying to emulate those old damaged images and sometimes the end result is more damaged "finger painting" than authentic.

Daily Whip Out: "Badass Bass"

   Conversely, once in a while I hit the jackpot and the vague distortions and specific detail combine to make an exquisite image. This is one of those rare instances:

Daily Whip Out: "Teresita"

   Once in a blue moon, the magic happens and I get a combo of Old Photo meets Modern Pathos.

Daily Whip Out: "The Baja Hinny"

   I also dig the amber glow of old photos and sometimes I try to blend the obscureness of old photos with the effervescent glow of a modern pop image. Here's a decent example of that:

Daily Whip Out Reworked: "Russian Bill"

   Like Chief Dan George noted in Little Big Man, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't."

Daily Whip Out: "Seldom Seen Slim"

  I have long heard of the moniker but I didn't realize this guy was a real person.

Me lonely? Hell no! I'm half coyote and half wild burro." 

—Seldom Seen Slim, these words are the epitaph on his grave at Ballarat, California Cemetery

I Sure Enjoyed The Original Super Bowl Half Time Show

 February 9, 2026

   Yesterday was fun, but I couldn't help but remember the very first Super Bowl half time show I ever saw. It was January 15, 1967 and The University of Arizona marching band, led by the unflappable Jack Lee opened up the show with a rousing "The Sound of Music" while doing intricate, crisscrossing formations. Wow!

The Very First Super Bowl Halftime Show!

   Then my old classmates segued into "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" while forming a giant riverboat with a paddle wheel that spun!

   From there they morphed into "When The Saints Go Marching In!" all the while marching into a giant musical note thirty yards tall!

   Jack Lee's 8-year-old son, John, stood on the fifty yard line in shiny red cowboy garb and twirling a baton in the air JUST LIKE HIS DAD!

   Then as a nod to me and historians all over Arizona, they did a reenactiment of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, as a tuba player went down in the crossfire, prompting two other band members to rush over with a stretcher and load up the tuba and carry it away!

   For the closer, the band formed two enormous stick figures and walked them to midfield to shake hands, but not before they kicked a pair of oversized footballs, which sent two stunt men in jetpacks rocketing up and out of the stadium! 

   Thanks to Greg Scott for sending me the newspaper account of the very first Super Bowl halftime show put on by The University of Arizona marching band. And, no, I wasn't kidding about the reenactment of the O.K. Corral fight. They really did that! Looking back, it seems even more fantastic to me now.

"Funny how blessings brighten as they take their flight."

—Old Vaquero Saying

The Opening to Beyond Hope BBB On 66, Beale's Strange Camel

February 8. 2026

After a storm and in the twilight, Beale's camel Seid glowed like a ghost.

Daily Whip Out:

"Beale's White Camel Glowed Like A Ghost" 

  I'll soon be out on the road again. Heading for Seligman on April 30 for the celebration of Angel Delgadillo's 99th birthday and Seligman's 100th. Oh, and Route 66's 100th. 

BBB at Home On 66

(photo by Rooster Rob Mathisch) 

   And speaking of which, this photo was taken across the street from the Sno Cap Drive-in last November when Rob and I cruised through Seligman on our way to Music Mountain. Love that place. I will be the MC for the all day event.

   Here's the opening to a dark desert noir I am working on with Stuart Rosebrook.

   A ten-X Beaver Stetson floats upside down in the deep end of the swimming pool at the Westward Ho Hotel. 

   Above, in the gathering darkness, a fiery sunset lights up the sky.

CUT TO:

   A close-up on the license plate of a 1962 Rambler in the parking lot of J.D.’s in the River-bottom. As the camera slowly comes up we notice that the car is rocking. Muffled moans come from inside. The camera does a slow zoom into the back window and we see a Mexican Mariachi bobblehead on the dash with big eyes wobbling in the moonlight. The camera keeps pushing through the windshield and across the hood and we see another car—a 1957 Austin Healey—coming into the packed parking lot and we see the neon lights of J.D.s and on the marquee it says, Waylon Jennings Upstairs & Buffalo Springfield Downstairs. The camera continues it’s slow zoom-pan and we see a long line of patrons snaking out the door. One of them is a gawky kid with big ears and he says, "I turn 21 in five minutes and there's nothing they can do about it. They have to let me in. Man, this is going to be a night to remember!"

Best Poetry Comeback by An American Outlaw

   When Charles Boles, alias Black Bart the Po8 was in prison for his many stage robberies (where he often left doggeral poems) he was asked if he was going to write any more poetry and he answered, "didn't I tell you I have given up my life of crime!" 

"Black Bart Po8"

By Thom Ross

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth. Because the truth is never just one thing is it? Life is layered, contradictory, always in flux. To try and pin it down is like trying to catch wind in your hands. But through story, through emotion, we get close to something that feels real.”

—Doris Lessing, “The Golden Notebook” 

Making Out And Aging Out

 February 7, 2026

   Seems like it was just yesterday that I was making out in cars.

Necking 101

   Yes, and if you ask me, I thought I was pretty good at it. True, I practiced the art of it for quite a while, seems like decades but it was probably closer to five years, tops. And you may squirm now, remembering your own perilous adventures on your own personal back seat cage match. 

   Here, as it relates to me, was the scene of the crime.

'57 Merc Makeout Machine

   And, for a time, the movies were all about making out in cars as well. . .

Two-Lane Bird Eyes The Driver

   

   At the end of the day, I can't complain though. I ended up with a couple momentos from the experience.

Dos BBB Bambinos!

   Those times are long gone and now even the cars we made out in, are headed for the scrap heap.  

Crawling Out From The Wreckage

"Crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage

You'd think by now at least that half a brain would get the message

Crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage

Into a brand new car"

—Dave Edmunds

One More Bravado Beale Backstory

 February 6, 2026

   Just when some of you were hoping I was finished with Beal? Here is another Beale on the brain drain.

Daily Whip Out: "Beale Washed"

   When to stop? That is the question. Here is an earlier wash version, born from the online slam that "all my paintings are too dark and overworked."

Daily Whip Out: "Beale Light"

“A camel’s back is broken by the last straw, but it bears many before.”

—Old Vaquero Saying

   And, speaking of last straws, just got this comment about my recent obsession with Ned Beale:

"The 'last straw' will be another blog post on Beale. Folks, see what happens when you whine about too much Wyatt or Billy?"

—Unknown

The Father of The Mother Road

   He crossed the country thirteen times in his storied career. He was the hero of the Battle of San Pasqual during the Mexican War. He carried the first proof of California gold to Congress and President Polk, toting a seven-pound gold nugget he purchased with his own money. He was in the Navy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. After that he became a millionaire businessman in California. He served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and surveyed possible railroad routes across Colorado and Utah. Oh, and then he became a brigadier general in the Californian militia. And then, after all that, President James Buchanan appointed him to survey and build a 1,000 mile wagon road from Arizona to California. And, on top of that, he was ordered to test a group of camels brought in from Tunis for the purpose of seeing if they could be of use in the American West.

   Kit Carson was quoted as saying, "I can't believe this guy Ned Beale."

On June 25, 1857, Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale departed San Antonio with mules, horses, freight wagons, camels and a bright red ambulance wagon used primarily for supplies Among his crew was Hadju Ali, a Greek-Syrian who would become known to Americans as Hi Jolly.

The hardships of the journey were relentless.

His subsequent report, titled Wagon Road from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River, covers the road he surveyed, tested and proved and that later evolved into Route 66.

   How's THAT tease for the next issue of True West?

One More For The Road

   On second thought, given that Beale was a brigadier general in the California militia prior to the Camel Corps, he just might have worn a more military outfit on the expedition and perhaps he looked more like this.

Daily Whip Out: "Beale In Uniform"

“The more I see of them, the more I am convinced of their usefulness. Their perfect docility and patience under difficulties renders them invaluable.”

—Ned Beale on his camels