Texas, My Texas: A cartoonist's wacky look at Lone Star history :

Studying history had never bee so enjoyable. Roger Moore has shifted through decades of cartoons about Texas' rich and eccentric past, and came up with scores of hilarious drawings that are sure to elicit laughs. At 4.25''34;X5.5'', this stocking stuffer-sized book makes a nifty gift during the holidays or anytime. Roger Moore s new book Texas, My Texas (Great Texas Line Press $5.95), has taken some of the most notable -- and obscure but fascinating episodes, then adds a humorous twist to create off-the-wall cartoons. The cartoonist covers incredible ground, noting that two Hispanic rebel leaders signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, and that the Popeye comic strip first appeared in a 1929 issue of the Victoria Advocate. Then there s the 1882 opening of Judge Roy Bean s famous justice-dispensing, west of the Pecos saloon, the 1861 creation of the first Stetson cowboy hat, and the 1907 founding of Post, a planned community created by C.W. Post, inventor of Post Toasties cereal. There s more, including the first Thanksgiving held in Texas. The 1541 banquet was attended by 1,500 Spanish explorers and local tribe members in Palo Duro Canyon, eight decades before the one in Plymouth, Mass.. Then there s the San Antonio heiress who insisted on being buried in her Ferrari. Needless to say, few of these facts have ever been taught in a Texas classroom.