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Tim Truman

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Timothy Truman is a writer and illustrator with a long career in comics as well as game art.

Overview[]

Truman was born in 1956 in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. 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. He currently lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; he was an instructor at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design from 2003 to 2006.

Roleplaying games[]

Truman provided 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.

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. His first major work was Grimjack with writer John Ostrander, 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. 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. An ongoing series with the same name was launched the following year. With author Joe R. Lansdale, he reinterpreted Jonah Hex as a horror western. Their creation of villain Edgar Autumn elicited a lawsuit from musician Edgar Winter.

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. At Dark Horse Comics, he wrote Star Wars, Conan, and Conan The Cimmerian.

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). Truman said he first heard Gallagher's music in 1973 while a junior in high school.

Timothy Truman is often confused with the music composer Tim Truman.

Credits[]

Interior Art[]

References[]

  • Frank, Jane. A Biographical Dictionary: Role-Playing Game and Collectible Card Game Artists. North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc. 2012.
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