The Big Score: COWBOY MAURICE by Kamagurka and Herr Seele

Not since Parker broke into the bank and the racetrack in NOBODY RUNS FOREVER and ASK THE PARROT has a bigger score been acquired on short order.

Thanks to a Facebook buddy, I was tipped off to a rare COWBOY HENK book on sale in France. I used my European hook-up to snag a copy of the book, which is a Henk collection from 1986 (inexplicably, the COWBOY HENK comics have been alternately called COWBOY JEAN in France and, I guess, COWBOY MAURICE).

Last night, I hung out with my Cartoon Flophouse/Crying Macho Man compadre Jose Cabrera at, seriously, the only Italian restaurant in the Pacific Palisades/Malibu area worth eating at, the sublime Casa Nostra on Palisades Drive, enjoying some cappuccinos and dessert, and we took these victory shots.

(Casa Nostra, by the way, was wall-to-wall packed last night with more robust business than I've ever seen...not an empty seat in the house...It was quiet a lively scene...large groups of people, red wine and delicious Tuscan cuisine everywhere....Casa Nostra is recommended to all! Tell Giovanni Michael sentcha!)

I've just started reading the COWBOY MAURICE book, and it's interesting in that it's not a series of one-pagers (the usual Cowboy Henk gag cartoons) but a long-form send-up of a pair of Tintin albums: TINTIN IN AMERICA and, if memory serves me, CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH (the one with the cult dressed like purple Klansmen). (Behind this main story are two short ones.)

Thanks to all involved for helping me get this treasured copy of COWBOY MAURICE. The Cowboy Henk/Maurice/Jean strips are among my biggest inspirations.