Rodeo Cartoons From The Buckboard
1989 Guy Logsdon Books
Walt La Rue

Extremely limited available- no longer in print!

Included in the Special Collection,  {>} Style #
Special Collection Deluxe Framing Package, {>} Style #

"I'd like to dedicate this book to all those good folks I met and got to know around the rodeos. I wish we could do it all again."
     ---Walt La Rue 1989

From the Preface by Walt La Rue:
     "Most of the cartoons in this book were drawn thrity-five or forty years ago for the covers of the official rodeo cowboys' publication, The Buckboard. It gave us the rodeo news, told us where all the rodeos were being held, and how much money was in the purse. It listed the standings for the year, gave results of earlier shows, and carried some mighty good stories about interesting people and events around the circuit.
     The Buckboard was considered a must among the cowboys, and everyone that wore a big hat subscribed to it. 
     Rodeos, during the Buckboard Years, weren't quite as streamlined as the rodeos today, but they were sure enough wild, woolly, and western, and nobody in the audience ever left a performance before it was over. There were a lot of things that happened at the rodeos and along the way, and those were the subjects of my cartoons. These cartoons brought a few laughs to the readers when they were first published and maybe they will again today."

8.5" x 11" 134 pp. Black & White. Out-of-print. These copies are made available by the family of Walt La Rue. Ships shrinkwrapped.

About the Artist:
{>}Walt LaRue, (1918-2010), a rodeo cowboy during the 1940s and 1950s, belonged to the Cowboy's Turtle Association and the Rodeo Cowboy's Association. He was a Gold Card member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy's Association.

He followed the shows from Salinas, California to Madison Square Garden, rode bulls and bareback broncs, was a good hand and could make his living going down the road.

While rodeo'n, Walt had the opportunity to work in the movies and became a stuntman working at both for a long time. When he wasn't robbing trains, chasing buffalo, or fighting the rustlers in the movies, he was going to the rodeos. In the mid 1950s, after riding the wild ones for a long time, he hung up his gear and bid the rodeos goodbye. He stayed with his movie career, although his stunts became tamer.

For many years, as an avocation, Walt was a free lance artist. He started drawing as a kid and continued doing it all his life. He drew cartoons for newspapers, magazines, and advertising agencies, for eight years he drew all the covers for the Rodeo Cowboy's Magazine, "The Buckboard." Weber's Bread and Levi Strauss were among his advertising accounts. He also illustrated books and for the last twenty years of his life he created fine art.

His paintings, all Westerns, are now in private collections, galleries, and museums all over the world. Successful as this was, he still called the art work a "side line" and shared it with his many other interests.