BBB's Blog
If you've ever wondered what it's like to run a magazine or how crazy my personal life is, be sure to read the behind-the-scenes peek at the daily trials and tribulations of running True West. Culled straight from my Franklin Daytimer, it contains actual journal entries, laid out raw and uncensored. Some of it is enlightening. Much of it is embarrassing, but all of it is painfully true.
In addition to this current journal, my early journal entries show the rocky road and money lost in the True West Business Timeline.
Bob's biography - The Unvarnished Truth
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
Bob Boze 3:53 PM
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
Bob Boze 10:35 AM
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
Bob Boze 5:01 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:30 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:41 PM
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
Bob Boze 11:14 AM
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
Bob Boze 3:30 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:59 PM
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
Bob Boze 10:00 AM
June 25, 2009
I finally heard a different tune this morning, on my visit to the heart doctor (the usual tune I have heard is chocked full of haranguing and hectoring). In fact, I was praised by the doctor and the nurses, with smiles, even. The doctor marveled at my cholesterol levels: Lipid panel: cholesterol (114); triglyceride (62); HDL cholesterol (44); percent HDL (39); LDL Cholesterol, Calc. (60). My blood pressure is very good (100/60). When the assistant M.S.N. asked the doc if he wanted me back in three months, he scoffed and said, "No, I don't need to see this guy for six months." He told me, my Chol/HDL Ratio is 2.6 and that is half of what a normal man my age would clock in at. Pretty impressive. And what do I attribute this to? Put simply: the love of a stubborn woman. And, speaking of which:
Behind Every Successful Man Is A Surprised Woman
Dear Mr. Bell,
I watch Encore Westerns every evening. I’ve seen many of your pieces, but have never heard any about the women of the west. I think it’s safe to say that without the strength and determination of the women who moved west, there would be no west. What do you think?
—Jackie Sturr
Jackie,
You need to watch closer, I've done several women pieces, including Ma'am Jones of the Pecos, who had 11 kids and sewed her youngest son's eyelid back on. But you are correct that women really settled the West. The first wave is all men, with wide open communities, anything goes, then the first wives arrive and don't cotton to that kind of depravity and they cajole and convince their husbands to do something about it. And, when you stop to think about it, that is the exact arc the internet has taken.
—Bob Boze Bell
Executive Editor, True West magazine
"There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they're called humorists."
—Cullen Hightower
Bob Boze 3:04 PM
June 25, 2009
Going to see the heart doctor this morning. Feel good about that, but I read a quote the other day that kind of pointed out one of my main weaknesses:
"In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; a grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak."
—James Russell Lowell
I realized that I have trouble starting and I have trouble finishing, but I am a master of all things in between. Ha. Speaking of which here's sketches 9,190 to 9,200 and beyond:
More to say on all of this, but I'm late for appointment down on Shea. Meanwhile here's a positive quote for a negative vibe day:
"To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It is easy to say no, even if saying no means death."
—Jean Anouilh
Bob Boze 9:42 AM
June 24, 2009
Went down to a healthcare place in Scottsdale at ten to get a yellow fever shot. This is in case we have to build a canal in Cave Creek. Actually, it's for our trip in September to Buenos Aires and beyond.
A longtime Hollywood wrangler, Johnny Watkins, came by the offices today. He saw a True West magazine down at Bart's Indian Village, took it home, read it, and realized our offices were just down the street. Johnny and I had a grand talk. He was the horse wrangler on Deadwood, Red River, Three Amigos, Stagecoach (the newer one), Junior Bonner, The Getaway (Kim Basinger) and Little House On The Prairie. Pretty impressive resume.
Went home for lunch and worked on another dream sequence. This time of a dust storm that morphes into a wicked, giant javelina (or, is it a bull?):
Worked up a sketch of how it would look as Mickey Free flees and the giant bovine moves in for the kill:
“What was hard to bear is sweet to remember.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
Bob Boze 4:57 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:53 PM
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
Bob Boze 10:35 AM
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
Bob Boze 5:01 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:30 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:41 PM
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
Bob Boze 11:14 AM
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
Bob Boze 3:30 PM
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
Bob Boze 3:59 PM
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
Bob Boze 10:00 AM
June 25, 2009
I finally heard a different tune this morning, on my visit to the heart doctor (the usual tune I have heard is chocked full of haranguing and hectoring). In fact, I was praised by the doctor and the nurses, with smiles, even. The doctor marveled at my cholesterol levels: Lipid panel: cholesterol (114); triglyceride (62); HDL cholesterol (44); percent HDL (39); LDL Cholesterol, Calc. (60). My blood pressure is very good (100/60). When the assistant M.S.N. asked the doc if he wanted me back in three months, he scoffed and said, "No, I don't need to see this guy for six months." He told me, my Chol/HDL Ratio is 2.6 and that is half of what a normal man my age would clock in at. Pretty impressive. And what do I attribute this to? Put simply: the love of a stubborn woman. And, speaking of which:
Behind Every Successful Man Is A Surprised Woman
Dear Mr. Bell,
I watch Encore Westerns every evening. I’ve seen many of your pieces, but have never heard any about the women of the west. I think it’s safe to say that without the strength and determination of the women who moved west, there would be no west. What do you think?
—Jackie Sturr
Jackie,
You need to watch closer, I've done several women pieces, including Ma'am Jones of the Pecos, who had 11 kids and sewed her youngest son's eyelid back on. But you are correct that women really settled the West. The first wave is all men, with wide open communities, anything goes, then the first wives arrive and don't cotton to that kind of depravity and they cajole and convince their husbands to do something about it. And, when you stop to think about it, that is the exact arc the internet has taken.
—Bob Boze Bell
Executive Editor, True West magazine
"There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they're called humorists."
—Cullen Hightower
Bob Boze 3:04 PM
June 25, 2009
Going to see the heart doctor this morning. Feel good about that, but I read a quote the other day that kind of pointed out one of my main weaknesses:
"In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; a grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak."
—James Russell Lowell
I realized that I have trouble starting and I have trouble finishing, but I am a master of all things in between. Ha. Speaking of which here's sketches 9,190 to 9,200 and beyond:
More to say on all of this, but I'm late for appointment down on Shea. Meanwhile here's a positive quote for a negative vibe day:
"To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It is easy to say no, even if saying no means death."
—Jean Anouilh
Bob Boze 9:42 AM
June 24, 2009
Went down to a healthcare place in Scottsdale at ten to get a yellow fever shot. This is in case we have to build a canal in Cave Creek. Actually, it's for our trip in September to Buenos Aires and beyond.
A longtime Hollywood wrangler, Johnny Watkins, came by the offices today. He saw a True West magazine down at Bart's Indian Village, took it home, read it, and realized our offices were just down the street. Johnny and I had a grand talk. He was the horse wrangler on Deadwood, Red River, Three Amigos, Stagecoach (the newer one), Junior Bonner, The Getaway (Kim Basinger) and Little House On The Prairie. Pretty impressive resume.
Went home for lunch and worked on another dream sequence. This time of a dust storm that morphes into a wicked, giant javelina (or, is it a bull?):
Worked up a sketch of how it would look as Mickey Free flees and the giant bovine moves in for the kill:
“What was hard to bear is sweet to remember.”
—Old Vaquero Saying
Bob Boze 4:57 PM
