Wild West Land Blog

As JK from Jamiroquai would sing in the 90s hit song Space Cowboy, I’ve just entered my ‘interplanetary good vibe zone’ with news that the web comic Cowboys and Aliens will soon begin shooting, quite possibly under the watchful eye of Iron Man movie duo Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr.

I can’t say I’d come across this comic before but since reading the gossip about the Dreamworks production I’ve read the online comic with interest. What better crossover is there than the wild west meets alien invaders?

The graphic novel mixes Western and science fiction genres. Set in 1800s Arizona, a skirmish between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship. The alien commander plans to tame the Old West and enslave everyone, but the cowboys and Native Americans turn their six-guns against the alien invaders.

The comic artwork is amazing - just look at this screen grab featuring cowgirl Verity, the Trail Master partnered up with trail boss Zeke Jackson, blazing away at the alien hordes flying in on Judge Dredd style speeder bikes:

Let’s hope the movie does this authentic western imagery justice. It should do given that Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the Platinum Studios CEO who created C&A (no, not that C&A) ran Malibu Comics when graphic novel Men in Black was transferred into a hit film.

Will Smith as Zeke Johnson? Well he does have the experience of working on Wild, West West…

Should be in cinemas in 2011.

Gil Elvgren is for many people the ultimate cheesecake/pin-up illustrator of the 20th century - the ‘Elvgren Girl’ was sweet, sexy and innocent and, as a result of the popularity of his work, he enjoyed a 30 year partnership with Brown and Bigelow.

Elvgren created all kinds of glamourous pin-ups but my favourite are, of course, the cowgirl themed artworks used to illustrate calendars from the 1950s.

If you have the odd ninety thousand dollars to spare then take a look at one of the current listings for sale at the Grapefruit Moon Gallery:

A fun sassy cowgirl is featured in this original oil on canvas by Gil Elvgren. This work was created for a 1953 Brown & Bigelow comissioned calendar titled Beat That. This rare surviving Western Americana/pin-up cross collectible image is fresh, bright, and a defining work by the well listed master illustrator.

The original oil painting looks superb, a real treasure from the 1950s, and could well prove to be a sensible investment. The gallery states:

A new auction record on the artist Gil Elvgren was set June 5th 2008 at Heritage Galleries when the Brown & Bigelow Commissioned Work “FASCINATION” Lot #66097 sold for $262,900.00, in the same sale another Elvgren oil on canvas “SKIRTING THE ISSUE” reached $203,150.00!

The Grapefruit Moon Gallery is an online art gallery “specialising in original Pin-up, Glamour, Advertising, and Cover Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration”.

They’re based in Minneapolis, Minnesota so if you’re interested in this Elvgren original head for the North Star state ASAP!

Here’s another recent online auction find - a pin-up style cowgirl strutting through the cactusland in some fancy cowboy boots. Not sure about the accuracy of the lasso thrower off to the right of the picture.

The playing card is signed but my eyesight means I can’t make out the name. It’s in the general pinup style of the 1940/50s era and another good add to my cowgirl art collection.

Browsing eBay I also spotted this lovely calendar sample print of 1951 vintage titled “The Round-Up” by Art Frahm.

Grapefruit Moon Gallery, which specialises in vintage pulp and pin-up themed collectables, is selling a batch and I’m tempted to bid for this nostalgic artwork featuring two boys in costume rounding up the neighborhood policeman.

I’ve been looking for more vintage pin-up style western playing cards lately and have come across a whole host of great sites about this style of artwork that was so popular during the 30’s, 40’s and 1950’s.

There’s even a dedicated gallery for collectors, ‘Great American Pinup’ at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery in Prince Street, New York City.

The picture below I found on a recent eBay hunt and is at the tamer end of the pinup art spectrum:

I’ve no idea who took the picture but it’s in the style of the more risque art created by Joyce Ballantyne, Art Frahm and Gil Elvgren for Brown & Bigelow. It also features on the Home Brew Records website for rock-a-billy / hillbilly group The Ranch Girls - in fact they have a good selection of wholesome western pinup girls from the fifties.

Brown & Bigelow of course is the keeper of some iconic American art produced mainly for calendars for over 100 years by some seriously seminal illustrators:

The Brown & Bigelow Archive… includes the exciting westerns of Charles Russell and Frederick Remington; the sporting scenes of Philip Goodwin and Frank Hoffman; the humorous “poker dogs” of C.M. Coolidge; the wildlife of Sweeney; the landscapes of Maxfield Parrish and the work of America’s best known artist, Norman Rockwell. We also feature hundreds of pin-ups by Gil Elvgren, Rolf Armstrong, Earl Moran, Zoe Mozert and others.

As the Meisel gallery website states, this pinup style of illustration was everywhere in the first half of the 20th century:

Every business, restaurant, theatre, club, and locker room was decorated with these beauties. Feminism, multi-culturalism, and political correctness, and all other hindrances to the pleasures provided by the pin-up artists were nonexistent.

So has modern political correctness killed off pinup art? In World War II when fighter plane and bomber nose art was common was it only brave airmen who got away with this public display of glamour? I doubt it.

In fact I’m sure far worse can be found on the 21st century internet and probably in many modern day advertising campaigns too where sex sells is still the motto of the day.

More finds to follow…

For now buy a copy of Taschen’s ‘1000 Pin-Up Girls’ and celebrate the innocence of the American pin-up .

My post from October last year comparing images of the real and the cartoon Annie Oakley has been most popular for quite some time now.

83 years after her death, could Margaret Johnson, “a gun-toting grandmother who shot a man she says tried to mug her in her wheelchair“, be a modern day rival to the iconic sharpshooter Oakley?

Let’s compare: Johnson has “at least a dozen shooting trophies in her flat and says that she once shot a hole in a coin from 30 feet away”.

A claim to fame for sure but Oakley is on record for her talents with a .22 caliber rifle and “reputedly could split a playing card edge-on and put five or six more holes in it before it touched the ground”. And that’s from 90 feet away.

I think Oakley takes the gold on this one but I wouldn’t want to be a mugger messing with the .357 Magnum-packing granny either!

I’ve been a little quiet the last two weeks being fully occupied with a new business venture. After 7 years of hard work and research I can now reveal the source of this distraction: www.cowboycountry.co.uk:

Cowboy Country is a unique wild west themed gift for line dancing fans, country and western music lovers,  western movie buffs or anyone with an interest in the USA.

Visit the website now and you can buy your own piece of America, quickly, easily and - most importantly- legally.

How does it work?

Well back in the year 2000 I bought some land north east of the city of Holbrook, Arizona. Read the rest of this entry »