Liberty Bell March, Day 24: Oh, a cowboy needs a horse, needs a horse, needs a horse

Wanna see somethin' from a book that has greatly influenced my comedy style for almost fifty years (a nice trick when you're only seven)? It's my well-worn copy* (in fact, the cover's even missing, but I laminated the first page so it won't fall apart!) of Dr. Fegg's Nasty Book of Knowledge (Amazon ad), written by the two best Pythons, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Ostensibly presented as an almanac of facts and history, it contains features like "Football: My Way, by the Supremes," "Parlour Games: Pass the Bengal Tiger," "Learn to Speak French in Four Minutes!," "The Famous Five Go Pillaging," "Europe on One Pound a Year," "I Fought the Mighty Anaconda and Lived!," "Dr. Fegg's Useless Page" ("This page can be scrumpled up and thrown away without damaging or interfering with the rest of the book"), and a couple of comic strips, one of which I'll show you now (and the other, probably next week!)

*I may actually have "borrowed" it from high school pal Tommy G., who probably is still wondering where his copy went. ... I've got it, Tom.

I'm not certain who wrote it (Jones or Palin or some unholy comglomeration of the two, a kind of Jonalin), but it's drawn by Frank Bellamy, one of the greats of British comics art. He's best known for his work on The Eagle, Thunderbirds, Dan Dare, and Steve Dowling's long-running adventure strip Garth. But I think you'll agree "A Cowboy Story" is one of his finest comics masterpieces, and acurately captures the energy, action, and non-stop excitement of the legends of the American West.



"A Cowboy Story" from Dr. Fegg's Nasty Book of Knowledge (Methuen, 1974), art by Frank Bellamy