[ Pro rodeo cowboy-turned-cartoonist entertains with “Earl” cartoons about the western way of life ]
Wally Badgett was a ranch kid-turned rodeo cowboy, then deputy sheriff -turned cartoonist.
And through it all, he’s had a sense of humor.
The Miles City, Montana man was born in 1952 on a ranch 75 miles south of Miles City, the son of Kirk and Lora Badgett.
Wally was intrigued by the sport of rodeo because of his older brother, who competed, and after high school, attended Sheridan (Wyo.) College, where he rode bulls and was the 1971 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association champion bull rider.
He competed in high school rodeo in every event but steer wrestling. After high school graduation in 1970, Badgett went to Sheridan, where he rodeoed collegiately two years, before he moved back to Montana.
From 1972 to 1975, he was on the pro rodeo trail, competing in the saddle bronc riding, calf roping, and bull riding, and qualifying in the bull riding for the 1974 National Finals Rodeo, finishing eighth in the world standings.
By 1975, he stayed closer to home, rodeoing in Montana and the surrounding states, and four years later, he was done. A self-professed homebody, he was married to Pam (they married in 1973) with two little children at home. And it was time to quit. “I had never left the arena in an ambulance,” he said, “and I thought, I’m way overdue.” With a family to support, “you start to think of other things.”
And he was pain-averse, he joked. “I’ve always hated pain, and I’m kind of a no-pain guy. Obviously, riding roughstock can be fairly painful at times.” His worst injuries were a broken ankle and pulled groins.
Wally and his brother leased part of the family ranch for awhile (his mother had had a serious stroke when he was four years old, and his dad was forced to sell the ranch to pay for her care.) Then, one day, while in Ashland, Montana, he ran into the deputy sergeant. The sergeant mentioned that they were looking to hire a police officer, so Wally applied and got the job.
For three years, he was a deputy sheriff in Rosebud County,(Forsyth), then the next nine years he spent as deputy sheriff in Custer County (Miles City).
It was an injured back that drew him into his next profession: drawing.
While laid up due to the back injury, he drew cartoons to entertain himself. He’d drawn as a child, but never anything serious.
And thus Earl the rancher was born.
As Badgett’s cartoons featuring Earl and his wife in various ranching situations grew in popularity, he got busier with the artwork.
“People were starting to call the sheriff’s office looking for the cartoonist instead of the cop,” he quipped.
He had to make a choice: continue in law enforcement, or build on the cartoon skills.
“I chose (cartooning) because there’s less chance of getting shot,” he joked. “I was always worried about getting shot (as a sheriff). I might have been the shakiest gun in the west. I was always worried someone would steal my gun and beat me up with it.”
Badgett’s cartoons with Earl and his situations tickle the fancy of ranchers, farmers, and those in the western lifestyle. They can be found in about 150 publications, from Texas to Canada, in rural and livestock newspapers.
When he started, his cartoon content was “inside cowboy humor, and if you weren’t a cowboy, you might not get it,” he said. “I realized, if I’m going to make this work, I have to draw so the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker can understand it, and it’s still funny.”
Badgett is always looking for content that he can work Earl into. “I keep my ears open. In our western world, you can be talking to someone, and they say something not intended to be funny, but it’s hilarious. I write those things down.”
Earl is depicted as a hard luck rancher whose cows tend to be thin, and whose wife often outwits him. He drives a 1950s truck and does some of his ranch work with a team. It’s a throwback to Badgett’s youthful years on the family ranch. He fed cattle with a team and has always been fascinated with that.
Badgett never gave a name to the wife, but occasionally, tongue-in-cheek, he’ll call her “She Who Must Be Obeyed.”
Every Earl cartoon Badgett draws has a dog in it (“I don’t think I’ve ever known a rancher that didn’t have a dog,”) and a magpie.
The magpie came by accident. Badgett included the bird occasionally, but one day, someone told him he looked for but couldn’t find the magpie in the latest Earl cartoon he’d read.
So Badgett, whose pen name is M.C. Tin Star, went back and included the bird in his previous cartoons and now draws one in every one. “It’s my trademark,” he said.
Much of his drawing is done in the winter, when the weather is cold. “The days are short, and sometimes I might do two or three or four in a day. I usually operate in a state of disorganization and confusion,” he joked.
Badgett served as the rodeo coach at Miles City (Mont.) Community College for about twenty years, first as assistant coach, then as head coach. He retired from that role in 2021.
Justin Miller was one of Wally’s rodeo athletes from 2008-2010.
The Lockwood, Mont. cowboy rode barebacks in college rodeo and appreciated his coach’s willingness to help.
“If you were going to work hard (in college rodeo), he was going to work hard with you. He would do whatever it took, for whatever you wanted,” Miller said. “He wouldn’t give up on you or leave you wanting. He’d help you out as much as you wanted.”
In his pro rodeo career, Wally held the record for the high marked ride bull ride in Houston for several years, at 85 points. “That doesn’t sound like much now,” he said, noting that markings have gotten higher.
He also said that bullfighters are more proficient now. “Back in my day, there might be one bullfighter, and he may or may not be any good. He might outrun you to the fence, but at least there might be someone to help you up if you got there, too.”
He and Pam have a son, Brett, who is married to Joni and lives in Miles City, with a daughter, and a daughter, Whitney, who is marked to Fakhrul Hasan; they have a son and a daughter and live in California. Both children are artistic; one of Brett’s sculptures, a half-life size of a steer roper, stands at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in the back garden.
He cowboys for a local ranch, when they need him, but mostly stays home and enjoys Montana and rural life.
He refuses to use any digital device, social media, and doesn’t text. “I’ve seen a lot of changes, and I’ve been against almost all of them,” he joked. “But they happen anyway.”
Badgett is a 2023 Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame inductee and the third recipient of the Saddle of Honor, joining the 2018 Saddle of Honor recipient Charles M. Russell and 2019 recipient Jay Contway.