Gus McCrae

Here’s the other half of the Hat Creek Cattle Co. (though, if you take into account Pea Eye, Deets, and Next, he’s really only a fifth, and if you count the drive hands then the fraction becomes even more confusing), Gus McCrae, one of (if not THE) finest characters ever to emerge from the western genre. To be fair, I haven't yet read Monte Walsh, which I hear is quite deserving of the title.

TRUE GRIT #7: There were more men in the country at that time who looked like Cleveland than did not

The last o' the bunch! Perhaps I ought to have included Colonel Stonehill, or the Original Greaser Bob, but there's only so much time in the day. And so, I conclude with everybody's favorite character, the one-eyed fat man himself, Rooster Cogburn. 

TRUE GRIT #6: A methodist and a son of a b****

Well, this wasn't the one I'd planned to post today, seeing as tomorrow is another WIZARDING WEDNESDAY, but I had a few minutes while running copies of the new Crogan Adventure Society newsletter and whipped these fellas up in the sketchbook. It was not until I was finished that I reckoned they looked near enough to Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant that I think I'd make to cast them in the roles. Can you see it?

True Grit Drawing #5: A saucy manner does not go down with me

Liz and I watched the new Coen Brothers version last night. I got it for my birthday, and hadn't seen it since its opening weekend at the theater. Though I had the actors present in mind while reading the book, I was not prepared for how strikingly different the film version of the characters would be from my interpretation of them, at least in delivery and mannerisms.

TRUE GRIT #4: It is a waste of time and none of my business

Boots didn't make it into the new movie - and it's been so long since I've seen the old one that I can't remember if he made it into that one, either - but he was a fun little aside in the book, and I thought him worth including in this set of pics.

TRUE GRIT #3: I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it if the law fails to do so

TRUE GRIT #2: "Lucky" Ned Pepper

TRUE GRIT #1: Everything is Against Me

This week: TRUE GRIT! Also, probably, Sherlock Holmes. I did a bunch of Sherlock Holmes drawings, and as I'll be seeing the new movie tonight with a batch of comic folk I may be in a Sherlocky mood. But I've just read Charles Portis' TRUE GRIT, then reread it as an audiobook (wonderfully narrated by Donna Tart), and am on road to reading it again, between rereading my Annotated Sherlock Holmes. TRUE GRIT is a darn fine book, and I'm not ashamed to say that it was the Coen Brothers' excellent adaptation that finally got me around to reading it. It's becoming a favorite, and my first pick as a gift for any preteen girl relatives who like reading (I just gave up one copy, and ordered a couple more in reserve).

 Anyway, I did a batch of pictures of some of the characters, based as close as I could to the descriptions offered in the prose, and figured on posting them up.