Thursday, February 25, 2021

Timothy Truman's Scout comic (Eclipse Comics)


 This mid-80's series was another fine comic from the time, featuring a near-by apocalyptic future (most of the series has now occurred in what is our past) and stars an Apache named Emmanuel Santana, who, besides his Native American upbringing, was trained as a marine, making him a formidable foe in the hellscape that the American Southwest became.

With some fantastic artwork, Truman combines Santana's native spiritual roots - he has a spirit guide, he fights supernatural monsters, he regularly performs cleansing ceremonies, etc. - with his military training and survival skills to enable him to live through the adventures he has and the characters that he meets. There are rock'n'roll/blues musicians (Truman was a musician himself and often included old songs in the stories and even recorded a flexi disc to coincide with one issue and later put out a full length album), Las Vegas slimeballs, mutants, religious fanatics based on a mentally challenged youngster who preaches the word of Tolkien (sorta/kinda), super-powered beings and so much more! 

Truly enjoyable story lines, fine dialogue, fairly realistic relationships (considering), and superior artwork, along with the mix of mysticism and rock'n'roll made this one of my faves of the time. Worth digging up!