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THE WRITERS: TIMOTHY TRUMAN

Timothy (Timbro) Truman is best known for his work as artist and co-creator (with John Ostrander) of "GrimJack," and has also created, wrote and illustrated "Scout" and "Wilderness." He is a well known painter with TSR some years back and has painted his way through the "Wild Cards" paperback covers. Truman was instrumental in breathing new life into Hawkman with the award winning "Hawkworld: As Above, So Below." Truman is a graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Comic Book and Graphic art, graduating in 1981. Current work includes DC's four issue Guns of the Dragon featuring Bat Lash and Enemy Ace. "The first year was very scary," says Truman. "Mostly because I thought I was better than I was. It was different from any other school I'd gone to because I was being instructed by people who were in the business, like Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano. The third year was amazing, really phenomenal because I came to terms with my limitations, and I got my mind right about using my talent to make a living." Truman's biggest lesson learned; "On every job, bring something back in addition to the work-a story idea, an extra drawing, something. For years, I used that as a rule of thumb, and it got me a lot of work." Special thanks to Wizard Guide to Comics for the article on graduates from the Joe Kubert School. Here is just a small example of Timothy Truman's work as taken from the Hawkworld #1. Timothy Truman Interview Tim Holtorf: To start off with, how exactly did the Hawkworld come about?  Timothy Truman: When he was still alive, Gardner F.  Fox and I had talked about the idea of doing a John Carter of Mars-style science fantasy  story (I'd sort of talked Gar out of retirement). Gardner wanted to do something with "swordmen and great, tall towers," as I recall.  I told him I'd get back to him when I'd finished a few then-current assignments. Well, months passed, and I at last was near to wrapping up my commitments. In the meantime, I'd had a great idea: our fantasy story could be a Hawkman story. We'd set the tale on Thanagar, and Gar's "tall towers" would be the roosts of the Hawk royals. We'd have a grand time. I started writing Gar a letter. Well, I discovered that on the night that I was writing the letter-- at the very hour!-- Gardner F. Fox died.  I was pretty shaken up. I set the Hawkman idea aside for the time being. Sometime later, Mike Gold, then an editor at DC, started trying to woo me over to DC. At that time, I was only working for the independants. I had resisted for a long time-- Mike referred to my working for DC as "coming over to the big boys," and God love Mike, but his turn of phrase made me feel a bit patronized. Well, he kept hammering me. Things started to look pretty attractive, but I didn't make a move until it occured to me that maybe I could do the Hawkman story Gar and I had talked about. Strangely enough, Mike mentioned my association with Gar at that point, and said that he'd heard that Gar and I had a Hawkman idea that we'd been working on. Too strange. In any case, I decided the time was ripe to crash the majors and do the story, my way, with an "independant" sensibility, as a tribute to Gar. TH: What major changes were made in the new inception of the Hawkman legend? TT: As far as my miniseries was concerned, not many, when you think about it-- at least on the face of things. My Hawkman was meant to operate hand-in-hand with the then-current version, and not alter any of his continuity.  This story was happening in the character's past, when he was a rookie--- maybe ten or twelve  years before he came to Earth.  I just embellished things that had already been laid down in the Silver Age by Gar and Joe Kubert. I  looked at the things they'd established and sort of "validated" them. Why did an alien race use earth-like birds as a model for their flying devices? Why was Katar so attracted to history and archeology? I established his background as a fan and collector of historical objects-- especially things dealing with era of the Thanagarian hero, Kalmoran. Kalmoran was an ideal that young Thanagarians had been told to look up to: a combination of Caesar, George Washington, and Marcus Garvey! Katar was rather obcessed with the legend and was modeling himself after Kalmoran. Gar and Joe had described Thanagar as a "Utopia." Well, at the time, ther idea of a Utopia was pretty scary for me. Since I come from southern coal miner stock, I know that Utopia's don't exist unless they're built on someones' backs. The elite will lead a gay, free life, but someone still has to do the dishes. So, as the story progressed, Katar discovered the plight of a conquered, indentured alien underclass on Thanagar, and through that he realized just how far the Kalmoranian ideal had sunk. From there, the story was about the fall of his ideas, the destruction of the "old" Katar, his fall from grace, his search for redemption, and, finally,  the rise of a new Katar-- a hero raised on idealism, but tempered by certain brutal reality.  And all kind of stuff like that. Despite all this stuff, my Katar still worked as the Katar Hol who (at that time) everyone knew and loved! All the back-story and continuity could remain intact. I took Gar's 60's juvenalia and ran it through the 80's blender.  I hoped there'd be a somehow deeper character who came out of my series. I wanted  Hawkworld not only to have a plot, but also a theme. In which case, you had to read all three issues, like a novel, to "get" it. In truth, that's what I wanted the series to be-- an enjoyable science fiction novel that anyone could pick up and read and still "get." You needed no background in the character-- or in comics-- to enjoy the story. And for those who knew the Hawkman continuity, I wanted to shake them up a bit before fanning them off with the last issue and saying "See. Everything's OK. He's still Hawkman."  I'd taken the "comic book as novel" approach in my Scout comic for Eclipse, using every issue as a new chapter, and it had worked well. TH: Byth Rok as a wingman commander was an incredible idea.  How did that come about? TT: I needed a villain, and loved Byth. He just seemed like a natural-- an evil guy who the Thanagarian System would, of course, lionize. I wanted his shape-changing powers to be a little more realistic-- or at least a little more palatable-- so I introduced the drug idea. This, in turn, led me down some good plot avenues. TH: Was the decision to see a monthly series based on reader suggestion?  And did you ask to be a part of the monthly or did you wish to write along side Ostrander? TT: The miniseries sold very well.  It was both Diamond and Capital's "Top Dollar Book" during the months that it came out-- meaning that, multiplying the wholesale price by the amount of comics sold, it made more money for retailers than any other comic book being published book during those three months. I was prety proud of that-- and of the fact that, on the regular "Top 100,"  it outsold Conan, which was very good selling book at that point. Not many DC books were outselling Marvels in those days, especially at Hawkworld's cover price.  So, that bit of historical boasting aside, it was sort of a given for DC to make Hawkworld a monthly. Mike asked me to write the book, and I just couldn't do it. I didn't have the steam or enthusiasm for it, and I only do projects that interest me greatly. In my little mind, doing a  monthly book seemed to cheapen the work I'd done on the miniseries. Sort of  like makinging the Man From Uncle, seeing it become a hit, and then rushing to do The Girl from Uncle right on its heels. Know what I mean?  I wanted the miniseries  to stand on its own, and I was too spent on the concept to do a spinoff. Those three issues of Hawkworld were a lot of work! However, Mike wanted my name attached to the book. So I was listed as co-author. Which meant that John Ostrander called me up once a month with his plot ideas, we spent 15 minutes on the phone, mainly me saying "Yeah. Sure. Sounds great, Johnny O," and offering a few sick ideas along the way. John was really carrying the ball, God bless him. He's still one of my very dearest friends, and in hindsight I think that I was unfair to him to be so stand-offish about the whole thing. Anyway, when John and I went to DC for an editorial meeting, we went up thinking that my original idea would remain intact-- the events in Hawkworld had happened years before the then-current DC continuity. I even thought that the series would be set on Thanagar.  I mean, after all, they wanted to name the new series "Hawkworld," right? and I'd been paid a lot of money to do a Hawkworld "bible" for other artists and writers, most of which detailed Thanagar and its history. Well, we got a surprise. Mainly by editorial edict (and John backs me on this), the monthly Hawkworld book would start with Katar and the rookie Shayera coming to earth-- in the present day!  What they were after was a "Hawkman: Year One" sort of approach, I guess. I knew it wouldn't work, and it didn't. John shouldered the burden and made what he could of the mess, and  in the process concocted some pretty daring stories, especially the  ones that dealt with American Constitutionalism. I thought those were quite good-- grown up stuff. So, if it sounds like I'm passing the buck to DC editorially, then so be it. However,  John and I should have stood our ground, but we didn't. That was our biggest mistake. At the time I was ass deep in my Simon Girty book, Wilderness-- a mammoth undertaking! I'd done what I set out to do with Hawkman. I really felt that DC could do whatever it wanted with its "product" Hawkman. I'd taken my shot, and hit the mark I'd aimed at, I thought.  Next target: self-publishing the intensely researched  biography of a Ohio Frontier Renegade during the Revolutionary War years! TH: What made you leave after issue number 10?  And what made you come back for issues 29 to 32?  TT: Issue 10 was all I was contracted for. I used the Hawkworld "co-plot" money to help finance my family while I took six months off to write and draw Wilderness. For the "come back" issues, Archie Goodwin called me up to help the book out for a few issues while the regular artist caught up. The book was in a jam, and this seemed like a good way top give John, archie  and the artist some breathing room. There's no way I could refuse a request from Archie. Plus, John was writing it, and I wanted to work with my old "Grimjack" partner again. the idea that he had sounded very interesting, so I jumped aboard.  Every time I turned in the pencils, Archie would make it a point to thank me for "helping out," and I could feel myself blushing every time. What a great guy he was. A truly fine man. He's one of my heroes, creatively and personally. TH: With regards to some of the Thanagarian slang that cropped up from time to time, was that some of your own creation or past writings of Hawkman? TT: It was all mine. I was into Joeseph Wambaugh heavily at the time, and was aware of that cops have their own secret, shorthand  "street language." I couldn't use earth cop jargon, so I had to invent one for the Thanagarian Policemen. As it happened, Peter David later appropriated some of the terms (especially "flash" and "meat") for his Spiderman 2000 or whatever that series was. I didn't mind: I thought it was hilarious He was on this anti-Rob Liefield "give credit where credit is due" schtick at the time in the CBG. Funny. I don't think he was paying any sort of concious "tribute" to me. maybe he thought these were real cop terms, or something. Who knows. No sour grapes. It was just something that I remember from that time. TH: There are rumours in the works on bringing Hawkman back with the first JLA-JSA cross over of next year.  Would you be willing to try a hand at a monthly or a mini if that comes about? TT: If I could handle him my way. It would depend: I still have a sore butt over the way the Thanagarian concept was trashed, which, in fact, trashed the entire Hawkman concept-- my Katar, their Katar, Tony Isalbella's Katar,  Gar's Katar, the whole 9 yards. Hell, if I could bring him back, I'd do it this way: he'd be one of the old Thanagarian policemen, reduced to working as a galactic gun for hire after the destruction of Thanagar (or whatever happened to it!). Big adventure with the JLA-- at first as an enemy. Then, at the end of the issue, this Thanagarian Wingman becomes the new Green Lantern for Earth. (See? Told you I was sick. The thing is, it'd work!) TH: What is you opinion on the Hawk Avatar that came about as a result of Zero Hour? TT: I'm sorry, but I became so discouraged by what I was seeing happen to the book that I didn't read those issues. It had gone very  far from my concept at that point. As I understand it, they were written mainly under the direction of some sort of Jim Shooter-wannabe editorial  mastermind.  All I knoow is what John Ostrander tells me: the Avatar destroyed Thanagar or something, right? Oh well. Guess we'll have to rebuild it sometime. TH: Finally, I've noticed some of the current projects you've done included a mini for DC called Guns of the Dragon, and you're working on a Star Wars project at Dark Horse.  What other plans for the future are you looking at? TT: My main attention is with the Star Wars books now. The "Anakin" one shot was just published. Rather proud of that one: It fills in all the holes between the movie and the Terry Brooks  novelization, including some scenes that were left out of the "final cut" of the movie. So to get the whole picture, the comic is really an interesting read.  My tenure on the regular starts next month, with issue 7. I get to introduce a character that I've wanted to do for years: a Tusken Jedi. Then, with my second arc, I get to develop the characters of the Jedi High Council and give them all voices. Plus, some of the (surviving!) Pod Racers are back! the main task that I've made for myself on the regular book is to make it a book about the Jedi. Period. It is the Big Jedi Comic Book. The Jedi Story. Thrilling Jedi  Adventures Monthly. Our Jedis at War. Jedi League of Coruscant. Jedi ways, Jedi means. Challenging task, and quite fun. I love doing these books. I approach them the way I did when I was doing the historical research for my Wilderness graphic novels: the prior Star Wars material becomes reference, and I treat  it all as though it really happened.  Lucasfilm recently asked that I be kept on as the regular writer "indefinitely." Quite flattering. I'm having a ball. The stories are the hardest to write of any that I've ever done! Thanks! Hope I didn't rattle on too much. Great site. I appreciate the opportunity to say something about the character. I've really had few chances to do so  before this. -Best, Tim T.

This section is dedicated to those artists and writers who have contributed at different times throughout the history of Hawkman. Check them out. The Artists Murphy Anderson Sheldon Moldoff Graham Nolan Jan Duursema Steven Lieber Joe Kubert Michael Lark The Writers Gardner Fox Tony Isabella Timothy Truman John Ostrander William Messner-Loebs Ben Raab Hawkworld #1, Truman's first Hawkman issue. Tim Truman: Hawkman Index Hawkworld Vol. 1 #1-3, writer, penciller, inks Hawkworld Vol. 2 #1-9, plot Hawkworld Vol. 2 #30-32, penciller Hawkworld Annual Vol. 3 #1, penciller