Lancer Gallery

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Wallpapers

LaJuan & Marilyn

LaJuan's wallpapers & commentary

The plotline of Lancer always intrigued me. In the mid 1800's, a California rancher, Murdoch Lancer, loses his wife during childbirth. His baby son is taken back to Boston to be raised by his conniving and ruthless, rich, father-in-law. Years later, the rancher marries a Mexican woman and she gives birth to his second son. Two years later, she walks off with a gambler and takes his son with her into the poverty of the Mexican border towns. Unable to recover either son, he throws himself into building a 100,000 acre ranch for them. His foreman is killed and he's shot by land pirates. He takes his foreman's daughter as his ward and hires Pinkerton agents to track down his sons. They're offered $1000.00 to listen to him for one hour. Both boys come home, meet each other for the first time and get introduced to the father they never knew. One is a Boston dandy and the other is a famous and fast gunfighter who had come home to kill his father. Murdoch offers each of them 1/3 of the ranch if they will fight for the land. They accept and the story of their fight and future relationship begins.

Commentary by LaJuan

Johnny Madrid

While he was a child, Johnny grew up fast after his mother died. He turned to the gun in order to survive. As a teen, he had a reputation as the fastest gun for hire and already had the experience of gun fights. His territory was mainly the Mexican border towns, but his fame spread rapidly. He worked hard to earn his reputation as a gun for hire, good at his trade. Smart and deadly, he was the most expensive gunfighter for hire, yet for a good cause he would work for a meal. When he was found by the Pinkerton agent, he was standing in front of a firing squad for his part in a revolution. Freed to go to his father, he went, out of revenge for the tossing out of his mother and himself from Lancer and for the $1000.00 listening money. Learning the truth, and always desiring a brother, he stayed on at Lancer to know and experience life with Scott.

I faded out the central picture of Johnny Madrid to indicate the dangerous alter ego of the real man, Johnny Lancer. All the side pictures are of the flamboyant gunfighter in his bright shirt, flashy hat, concho clad pants, silver belt and at work.

Brothers

Meeting each other, for the first time, was a shock for these two half brothers. They saw something of value in the other and quickly established a tight bond. Scott needed a younger brother he could banter and play with and Johnny needed someone he could trust and who would cover his back, because of his gunfighter reputation. The brothers were opposites in personality and temperament.

I have many pictures of the brothers, but I wanted to blend their separate pictures together to signify their bond with each other.

Scott Lancer

Scott came on the stage to the small town of Morro Coyo, California to meet with his sire. Raised by his grandfather to be well educated with good social skills, Scott rebelled and joined the Yankee cavalry unit in the Civil War. Captured and kept in a war prison for a year, he came back to Boston and drifted from one feminine encounter to another. Found and offered another life in California, curiosity led him to leave to meet his father, who had never contacted him as he grew up in Boston.

Scott is an intelligent, handsome man who “photographs well.” Fair of skin and hair, he was a smart dresser, and wore shades of browns, dark blue and grays. He favored plaids. He slips easily into the role of older brother to Johnny and Murdoch's ward, Teresa and intercedes between Murdoch and Johnny's arguments.

I faded the picture of Scott, with a background of trees, and moved it until his hat brim tied the two rows of side pictures together. I wanted consistency in this wallpaper.

Murdoch Lancer

He was a Scotsman straight off the boat when he met his first wife Catherine. Life threw him bad curves when he lost his first son, Scott and his second wife, Maria, stole his second son, Johnny, away from him. He retreated into a stoic and determined tough man.

I wanted to captured the many faces of the man, who could display anger, warmth, thoughtfulness, and happiness.

Johnny Lancer

Johnny broke a wild palomino horse and after Murdoch gave him the horse, he named him Barranca. At first, because they were so much alike temperamentally, Murdoch and Johnny would buck heads and have terrible arguments. As he grew more comfortable being a rancher's son and not a gunfighter, Johnny's playful and gentle personality emerged. He would slide down stair railings, walk fences, feed his horse beer, go camping, fish with a gun rather than a pole, jump into ponds and chase wild horses. He loved getting into mischief with his older brother, Scott.

I crowded many pictures into this wallpaper to show the richness of his life as a rancher, as opposed to his life as Johnny Madrid, gunfighter, good at his trade.

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