Bob Boze Bell's Blog (1,685)

May 19, 2013

    Doing a True West history talk this Sunday (19th) at the little white school house in Peeples Valley (southwest of Prescott). Starts a 1 p.m. $15 at the door. Sponsored by the Peeples Valley-Yarnell Historical Society.…

May 17, 2013

I found out last week I have ADD and OCD. Everything has to be perfect, just not for very long. Now it turns out I evidently have another affliction, as it relates to yesterday's blog post:

"You mean Gina Lolabrigida, don't you?"

 —CJW

Yes, of course, it's Gina Lolabrigida, not Lola Ginabrigida, the Italian actress from the 1950s with the big talents. Dang! Now it looks like I have Lexias-Dick: rather than…

May 16, 2013

When I do my six drawings in the morning I just let it fly and whatever comes into my mind while I'm noodling, I put down on the page. First, I was noodling a fifties bullet bra babe and that made me think of Lola Ginabrigida, then I thought of Lola Montez and that led me to Zona Montez (and suprisingly not to Chris Montez, the singer of the fifties classic "Let's Dance"):

 …

May 15, 2013

I was looking for an image and ran across a slew of mug shots I have completed over the years, way more than I realized.

And more mug shots:

 …

May 14, 2013

Still on the march to read about and see every road picture I can get my hands on. Actually watched "Harry & Tonto" where a 55-year-old Art Carney plays 75. Had its moments, but not my cup of tea.

Watched Two-Lane Blacktop a while back and enjoyed them being on the actual road (as opposed to filming in the San Fernando Valley and faking everything). Here are James Taylor (the Driver) and Dennis Wilson (the Mechanic) actually driving up through…

May 13, 2013

   After a speech in Phoenix on Friday, I met up with radio legend Jeanne Sedello at her new home below Camelback and 49th Street. Had some wine sitting in her new kitchen while an electrician worked around us and we solved some life and revisited some crazy radio times together on KSLX and Young Buck. Jeanner, as we call her, is still cut (defined muscles) and was the model for a cartoon character I created called La Gata.…

May 13, 2013

As you probably know, we have a rough time on the newsstands of America because we are a small player in a very large corporate world. Big magazine publishers, like Hearst, with over a hundred titles, can command shelf space and push out little guys. That's why it's so important to us to have such faithful readers like Nicholas Narog.

"After several months of complaining- the Barnes and Noble in the Mall of America now carries a certain…

May 10, 2013

Our art director, Dan The Man Harshberger, came up with this new T-shirt design based on our recent cover:

What do you think? Would you buy…

May 10, 2013

Had a pretty cowgirl come visit me two days ago.

Nancy Sheppard is a longtime rodeo roper and performer. (this is a publicity photo of her back in the day) She is doing a rodeo cook book and asked me for my grandmother Guessie's pinto bean recipe. Nancy brought…

May 9, 2013

We had a very contentious Design Review meeting yesterday. Lots of loud talking and swearing on my part. Got a headache, even. Got into it over the effectiveness of our house ads. I come from the institutional-ad school of marketing (Got Milk?) and Ken Amorosano comes from the ask-for-the-order school of marketing (Buy Now! Operators Are Standing By! Call This Toll Free Number!). This leads to ads that start out like this:

 …

May 9, 2013

We had a meeting yesterday about doing some new T-Shirt designs. Robert Ray came up with this one:

Would you buy it?

"Get to fighting, or get away."

—Wyatt…

May 8, 2013

Been working on getting some of my recent Doc Hollidays up on the new bobbozebell.net website. Here are some of the new arrivals:

"Doc's Last Gunfight"

 …

May 8, 2013

   Been studying old photos of Route 66. Thanks to the NAU archives and Sean Evans.

I was struck by how in the old photos there was so much oil in the driveways of the gas stations and on the…

May 7, 2013

It's Deena Carolina Bell's birthday today. She's 33 and expecting.

Had some interest in several of my Doc Holliday paintings which appear in the current issue of True West. This is the cover image:

"Doc's Last Gunfight 1", 11" X 15",…

May 6, 2013

Drained the pool yesterday. It has only been twenty-some years since we last did it. According to our pool guy, you're supposed to do it every four years. Had to rent a pump from Home Depot ($35) but it did the job. Filling slowly as you read this.

And, as I mentioned, I cleaned all weekend, throwing away a ton of reference materials, but then balked at these two items:

 …

May 5, 2013

Went and saw Iron Man 3 last night. Kathy's choice. I thought it was pretty amazing in terms of sheer production values and set pieces but ultimately kind of boring: the twisty ending is just over the top effects and a complete Comic-Book-Geek-out. What they spent doing it and how they did it is nothing short of off-the-charts incredible. Still, when I go to a movie I want to enjoy an actual story.

Made me realize I need to step up…

May 3, 2013

Crazy story: a lonely kid goes on a summer road trip with his parents and ends up riding in a '55 Caddie with three "starlets" heading for the coast. His Norwegian parents are mortified to see him looking out the back window of the disappearing Caddie. It's all a mix-up, of course, and the story has a happy ending. One of the starlets ends up being famous on the silver screen.

 …

May 2, 2013

I'm reading "The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir" by the filmmaker William Friedkin (The Excorcist, The French Connection) and he certainly has had a crazy up and down career. He is brutally honest about the first documentary he directed for the legendary documentary wizard David Wolper, (who by the way did "Appointment With Destiny" about the OK Corral fight). The Friedkin doc was called "The Bold Men" a pilot for an ABC series. He and an editor…

May 1, 2013

Of all the fighters in the McSween house on July 19, 1878, the youngest was Iginio Salazar, 15. He was shot twice, in the back and shoulder and survived.

Whipped this out this morning before I came into work. Iginio is second from left. Yes, that's the Kid…

April 30, 2013

As you may have guessed, we are doing a major feature on the mysterious journey of Billy the Kid's trigger finger. Yesterday I went home and whipped out this scratchboard to illustrate the article (the finger allegedly ended up in a mason jar):

It got…