Timothy Truman

"Tim Truman" redirects here. For the fictional character, see Tim Truman (Sunset Beach).
Timothy Truman
Born (1956-02-09) February 9, 1956
Gauley Bridge, West Virginia
Nationality American
Area(s) Penciller, Inker, Writer
Notable works
 Grimjack
Scout
Jonah Hex
Turok
Awards Haxtur Award 1991

Timothy Truman (born February 9, 1956)[1] is an American writer, artist and musician. He is best known for his stories and Wild West-style comic book art, and in particular, for his work on Grimjack (with John Ostrander), Scout, and the reinvention of Jonah Hex, with Joe R. Lansdale.

Biography

Truman was born in 1956 in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia.[2] After graduating from Gauley Bridge High School in 1974, he attended the Columbus College of Art and Design while also attending West Virginia University. From 1979 to 1981 he attended The Kubert School in New Jersey.[3] He currently lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; he was an instructor at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design from 2003 to 2006.[4]

Roleplaying games

After graduation, he moved to New York City and worked in the fantasy role-playing game industry for a few years providing illustrations for various companies, including working for TSR, Inc. as a staff illustrator.

With Flint Henry, Truman co-authored Rifts Dimension Book 1: Wormwood (1993), which was critically acclaimed for its vibrant backgrounds.[5]

In 2015, Truman contributed, among other artists, to bring inner illustrations to the tabletop role-playing game Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, first published in 2016 by British company Modiphius Entertainment.

Comics

Truman's first professional comics work was a series of backup stories in DC Comics' Sgt. Rock title published from 1981 to 1983.[6][7] His first major work was Grimjack with writer John Ostrander,[8] for the independent comics company First Comics. Grimjack first appeared in Starslayer #10 (November 1983), before moving to his own series after issue #18 (July 1984), and continued for 81 issues.

Truman has been continuously creative for more than 20 years, displaying his pulp sensitivities in his writing. In 1985, he created Scout, which was followed by Scout: War Shaman, a futuristic western. A year later, he relaunched the Hillman characters Airboy and The Heap for Eclipse Comics.[9] He also developed The Prowler, a Shadow type character, and adapted The Spider for Eclipse.

At DC Comics he created Hawkworld, a reinvention of Hawkman in 1989.[10] An ongoing series with the same name was launched the following year.[11] With author Joe R. Lansdale, he reinterpreted Jonah Hex as a horror western. In it, their creation of villain Edgar Autumn elicited a lawsuit from musician Edgar Winter.[12]

Truman was chosen by Dark Horse Comics to illustrate a newly completed Tarzan novel and wrote a story arc for the comic book. He also wrote nearly the entire run of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for Valiant Comics. For the defunct science fiction imprint of DC, Helix, he created The Black Lamb. He also worked on a typical pulp adventure Guns of the Dragon, featuring Enemy Ace and Bat Lash and scripted a Creature Commandos limited series.[13] At Dark Horse Comics, he wrote Star Wars, Conan, and Conan The Cimmerian.[14]

West Virginia

Truman's startling work, Simon Girty, Renegade was a two-volume black and white graphic novel that translated the horrors and triumphs of the American settler's western frontier in a fresh, interesting light. In bold, black and white use of positive and negative space, Truman appealed to both young and old audiences. It was especially important for West Virginians that had been struggling against novelist Zane Grey's portrayal of Lewis Wetzel in an overly romanticized, florid light. Truman himself is an avid historian who dislikes nothing more than to see a drawing of a war using the wrong weaponry, and the second volume of his two-volume series on Simon Girty was devoted to the errors caught in his first volume.

Tecumseh! a graphic novel based on the West Virginia Outdoor Theater, is a colored graphic novel that shows the play from beginning to end. It renewed interest in the warrior in Appalachia.

Music

A longtime fan and musician, Truman has integrated his love of music into comics and illustration. While working for Eclipse Comics, Truman included a Flexi disc recording inside Scout #19 (May 1987) that provided a soundtrack to one of the scenes in the comic. He also released an album through Eclipse Records with his band The Dixie Pistols entitled Marauder. The album included a short comic book featuring the wedding of Emanuel Santanna that took place between the first series Scout and the second series Scout: War Shaman.

While writing the biography of one of his favorite guitarists, Carlos Santana, for Rock-It Comics, Truman found out that the musician had been a longtime fan of his comic, Scout whose main character, Emanuel Santanna, is the namesake of the famous guitarist. Naming the characters after favorite musicians is a common convention that Truman has used throughout the Scout series.

Truman has also had a long relationship with the band the Grateful Dead creating artwork for CD covers, tour posters, limited-edition T-shirts and a color comics page in each issue of the Grateful Dead Almanac.

Truman built a recording studio in his home and while producing recording sessions for Cherokee singer/songwriter Terry Strongheart, they decided to form a new band with some of Truman's friends and Strongheart's daughter called the Terry Strongheart Band. Two CDs have been recorded, the first entitled Tears and the follow-up Indian School.

Truman provided illustrations for the posthumous Rory Gallagher release Kickback City (2013).[15][16] Truman said he first heard Gallagher's music in 1973 while a junior in high school.[17]

Timothy Truman is often confused with the music composer Tim Truman[18] who wrote the theme to Melrose Place and composed the score to Miami Vice's final season among other important contributions to the music industry in movies and television.

Bibliography

Avatar Press

Bantam Spectra

Dark Horse Comics

DC Comics

Helix

Vertigo

Eclipse Comics

First Comics

IDW Publishing

Innovation Publishing

Marvel Comics

Epic Comics

Topps Comics

Valiant Comics

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comics Buyer's Guide. Iola, Wisconsin. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010.
  2. ↑ Miller, Donald (January 23, 1996). "Frontier Roundtable", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. B9.
  3. ↑ Fox, Margalit (August 23, 2012). "Joe Kubert Sept. 18, 1926 – Aug. 12, 2012: Comic-book artist explored war and violence", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. D5.
  4. ↑ Truman, Timothy (n.d.). "About the Artist". Truman Studio. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016.
  5. ↑ Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Swindon, United Kingdom: Mongoose Publishing. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  6. ↑ "Timothy Truman". Lambiek Comiclopedia. 2016. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. A 1981 Kubert School graduate, Timothy Truman is an original artist of both mainstream and independent comic books. He began his career doing backup stories in DC's Sgt. Rock.
  7. ↑ Tim Truman at the Grand Comics Database and Timothy Truman at the Grand Comics Database
  8. ↑ Kapalka, Jeff (March 13, 2005). "Second-string heroes get second chance", The Post-Standard, p. 27.
  9. ↑ Markstein, Don (2010). "Airboy". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 14, 2016. In 1986, Eclipse Enterprises...acquired Hillman's characters and brought out a new Airboy series. The character was brought up to date (including moving him out of his original time frame) by scripter Chuck Dixon...and artist Tim Truman.
  10. ↑ Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1980s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Writer/artist Timothy Truman fashioned the three-issue prestige format limited series Hawkworld in a quest to revamp Hawkman.
  11. ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 247: "In June [1990], Timothy Truman's Hawkworld was expanded into an ongoing series, featuring the scripts of John Ostrander and the art of Graham Nolan."
  12. ↑ Brady, Matt (January 25, 2003). "The Winter Brothers vs. Jonah Hex Goes Supreme". Newsarama. Archived from the original on February 14, 2009. The matter began in 1996, when the Winter Brothers filed suit against Lansdale, Truman and Glanzman, writer, penciller, and inker, respectively, of DC’s Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such.
  13. ↑ Cowsill, Alan "2000s" in Dolan, p. 295: "The Creature Commandos returned to service thanks to writer Timothy Truman and artist Scot Eaton."
  14. ↑ Furey, Emmett (June 25, 2008). "Tim Truman talks Conan the Cimmerian". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015.
  15. ↑ Seaman, Duncan (November 29, 2013). "Album review: Kickback City by Rory Gallagher". Yorkshire Evening Post. Leeds, United Kingdom: Yorkshire Post Newspapers. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Drawing on Gallagher’s passion from crime novels, this triple CD comes housed in a hardback book that includes The Lie Factory, a new novella by bestselling author Ian Rankin, illustrations by DC Comics graphic artist Timothy Truman and audio book version narrated by Hollywood actor Aidan Quinn.
  16. ↑ (November 24, 2013). "Rebus author in tribute to legend Rory", Belfast Telegraph, p. 33.
  17. ↑ Dex, Robert (September 11, 2013). "Rankin writes novella inspired by icon Rory's music ", Irish Independent, p. 2.
  18. ↑ Scout: War Shaman issue 14, where the letters page shows several examples of this
  19. ↑ "1991 Haxtur Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016.
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