Born in Fort Worth in 1938 and raised in Arlington, Texas, Michael Garman was eight years old when he began creating little pipe-cleaner men. “I would twist pipe cleaners around pipe cleaners to make the muscles, arms and legs, and other features just right,” Michael Garman recalls “I used my mother’s sewing machine to design little cavalry uniforms and cowboy boots. I carved horses out of wood so that some of my guys were mounted. Then I’d gather up all my characters on my bed like a battle scene. I had guns and cannons and horses. Then the great battle began and my hero would get shot. I would arrange him just so, as he was dying. And I would cry and cry for him. I mean, I’d really be sobbing. And then I would scoop them all up and do it ...