Description
Winner, Mitchell A. Wilder Award for Publication Design, Texas Association of Museums
Folks across the West know a cowpoke named Jake. A good-hearted guy, he's always up to his eyebrows in debt or drought or prickly pears looking for them dad-blamed ole wild cows. In fact, he's so real a fella that it's hard to believe that Ace Reid made him up.
This book brings together 139 of Ace Reid's popular "Cowpokes" cartoons, reproduced in large format to show the artistry and attention to detail that characterized Reid's work. Grouped around themes such as work, weather, bankers, and friends, they reveal the distinctive "you might as well laugh as cry" sense of humor that ranch folks draw on to get through hard work and hard times.
In the foreword, Washington Post cartoonist Pat Oliphant offers an appreciation of Reid's "Cowpokes" cartoons, noting that "Ace's work has a magic of its own, and it owes nothing to anyone else." Reid's longtime friend Elmer Kelton recounts Ace's life and career in the introduction, describing how a shy boy who grew up on ranch work transformed himself into an artist-entrepreneur who never met a stranger and who made ranch work the subject of his real love, cartooning. This collector's volume belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves the "Cowpokes" cartoons, knows a fella like Jake, or enjoys the dry wit of the American cowboy.
Author: Ace Reid
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 03/01/1999
Pages: 176
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 10.06h x 8.01w x 0.44d
ISBN13: 9780292770973
ISBN10: 0292770979
BISAC Categories:
- Humor | Form | Comic Strips & Cartoons
About the Author
The late Ace Reid grew up on a ranch near Electra, Texas. He broke into cartooning at the West Texas Livestock Weekly and syndicated his cartoons to newspapers across Texas and the West. Fifty years later, Cowpokes cartoons remain an enthusiastic following.