Add Some Post-Apocalyptic Native American Adventure to Your Day.

From Scout #10, cover dated August of 1986, here's a nifty pinup gallery featuring some very good artists doing their versions of Tim Truman's characters, including Tom Yeates and Steve Bissette:

I included J.K. Snyder III's because it's his written and drawn-by back feature, which ran in the first eight issues of this title, that I'm going to be taking a look at next. Stay tuned!

Passing along an appeal.

Got some disturbing news Friday night when I was reading Steve Bissette's Myrant blog- seems that Timespirits scripter and co-creator Steve Perry is terminally ill and apparently destitute besides; according to Bissette he is in dire straits, and he has put out a call for help for his friend.

Please go here to read Bissette's post, if you haven't already.

Even though I don't know Perry personally, I had some brief email correspondence with him a few years ago after I wrote this post about the 80's Epic series that lasted a too-brief eight issues. A year or two later, he emailed me out of the blue to let me know that Image was planning to reprint TS in a trade collection, which has yet to see print due to what I understand are technical issues of some sort. He was very nice to me in both instances, and I appreciated being kept in the loop. Timespirits is one of my absolute favorite series; a true unappreciated and overlooked gem in my opinion, and even after all this time, when I reread these books I am often amused, excited, and even moved by the drama, humor and adventure contained in those stories. Of course, a large part of this is due to Tom Yeates' excellent art (as well as a couple of others who did short features, including Bissette himself and Rick Veitch), and I don't know what the exact ratio of ideas and concepts was between the two...but Perry had a really dry, but marvelously expressive, dialogue style that served these stories very well and he made the two leads, Cusick the Tuscarora and Doot of the Wawenoc, come alive in a way that few writers could, as true then as it is today. Anyway, this news makes me very sad, because I have been touched and moved by these tales, and it hurts to hear that one of the men responsible is in such straits.

Even if you've never read Timespirits, I hope you can find it in your heart to perhaps send something along or take some sort of appropriate action. For my part, I will try to send something, but as always I live paycheck to paycheck and rarely have much to give. I have considered perhaps doing an illustration of the 'Spirits, and auctioning it on eBay, to send whatever I get along to Perry. I'll let you know here when I do.

All right, enough's enough- I've finally gotten over that stomach virus or food poisoning or whatever that I had, and I feel like me for the first time since Tuesday night. But tonight, I had DVDs of Neil Young (new Heart of Gold, so-so) and Faces-Last Concert (too many shots of Rod Stewart wiggling his ass, and the print condition was miserable, but Keith Richards guest starred and it was the frickin' Faces! Without Ronnie Lane, dammit, but still) plus I got my box o'new comics today...so that means that I'll be getting back in the saddle tomorrow, if nothing else but to get started on my PopCultureShock column with the new title, which is due over the weekend. Thanks for your patience, indulgence, and interest, such as it may be.

I did get a tidbit of information from none other than Steve (Timespirits) Perry tonight via email, and it went like this:

Timespirits is being reprinted by Image into a graphic novel with new stuff by Me and Tom(Yeates).

Apparently this supersedes the previous plans by another publisher to reprint the series that I hold in such high regard, and for my part I couldn't be happier that it's from a higher profile company than was previously announced- perhaps Image can hype it a bit more. We shall see. And hopefully I can be the one to let you know when it happens!

He also goes on to say

Steve Perry (me. you mother) who wrote Timespirits and Thundercats and Silverhawks and Dracula and GI Joe and Bizarre Adventures and Amazing High Adventures and Creepy and Heavy Metal and Conan and Star Wars and all that other shit ... is finally doing what he wants: A COMICS GRAPHIC NOVEL ABOUT MY SEVEN YEARS IN THE CARNIVAL: It's called RED EYE GRAVY. It is being drawn by JIM WHEELOCK, a fantastic artist out of LA who has never hit except in the cinema. Watch out -- adult material. Crazy.

This bears watching, too, I think! Link is mine. If it's the wrong Jim Wheelock, I apologize. Not exactly a hard-hitting comics journalist over here.

All right, that's all I got tonight. Check back soon.

And oh- that Sergio Aragones issue of Solo? BRILLIANT.

"Two bytes in a chip...two birds in a nest!"

Reading the recent news about Marvel's relaunch of its Epic imprint put me in mind of one of my favorite comics series, which came out as part of that line in the 80s...Timespirits.

Timespirits was co-created by scripter Stephen Perry (no, not the Journey singer) and illustrated by Tom Yeates, fresh from his stint on Swamp Thing pre-Alan Moore. It was perhaps the best and most sympathetic treatment of Native American characters in comics ever. Difficult to sum up in a nutshell, it was an imaginative, quirky, warm and winning blend of religion, Native American legend, science fiction and high fantasy which never took itself too seriously and is sorely missed, at least by me.

At its basic level, it's about the time-traveling adventures of Cusick of the Tuscarora, an aged Native American "Time Spirit", sporting a fedora, backpack, hiking boots and Sgt. Pepper jacket who functions like an extradimensional Monty Hall– he trades strange and powerful items for souls, which he collects in a turtle shell until he can release them into the afterlife. It is in one of these transactions, in issue #1 above, that he meets teenage Doot of the Wawenoc tribe in the early days of the pre-Revolutionary War American colonies. Doot's brother, Three Birds, wishes revenge on the white man for the slaughter of his village. Cusick, hearing this wish expressed aloud, appears to him and offers him a strange creature called a Bloodless Ghebe, which will enable the Chief to rout the white man from his land forever. The Ghebe, which resembles a walking stick insect with a big eyeball in place of a head, enter's Three Birds' brain, gives him incredible strength, and enables him to fire a destructive beam from his right eye, which has been replaced by the Ghebe. It also drives him quite insane. Three Birds goes on a murder spree, uniting the tribes against the white man. In the meantime, Cusick strikes up an acquaintance with Three Birds' younger brother and recognizes him as a potential Timespirit of great power. Doot, who loved his brother and did not understand what had caused his formerly pacifistic sibling to change so, wishes to stop the rampage and kill the Ghebe, which eventually sheds Three Birds' skin like a snake. It's too late to save Three Birds' physical self, but Doot is able to save his spirit and destroy the Ghebe using his nascent abilities, and takes his brothers' soul into himself. Cusick offers to take the young brave under his wing and teach him to utilize his potential as a shaman. It's a fine adventure yarn, in a time period that isn't depicted all that often, especially in comics, with a very touching ending.

Issues 2 & 3, arguably the zenith of the entire run, has a plot which is almost too gnarly to describe succinctly. Titled "The Blacksack of King Ogam", it involves dying magicians, unrequited love, spoiled princesses, bands of Norsemen, a spiteful talking fish which came closest to being an arch-enemy of the 'Spirits, a massive octopus-like creature called the Spurtyn Duyvel which is summoned up by a rejected, hate-filled amateur prince/magician with the aid of the fish, a magic bag which is literally bottomless, Stonehenge, Noah from the Bible, and much more. It works on a number of different levels– as heroic, pulp-type fantasy, as a romance, and as a cautionary fable. If you never read any other issues of TS, get these two.

Issue four was a Christmas-themed one, with Cusick facing an uber-vamp named Varnae and eventually delivering an object called the Crystal Skull to the Christ child. It also featured fill-in art by Al Williamson, Steve Bissette (Yeates inks), John Totleben (inking Yeates), and Rick Veitch. #'s 5 and 6 was another continued story, this one mixing a dystopian future and some commentary on the state of music vs. big business with the ghost of Jimi Hendrix and in #6 taking it up a notch, mixing in some anti-US government's involvement in Nicaragua (this was 1985, you know) statements, with Yeates taking the opportunity to let his feelings be known in the matter. Mildly controversial at the time, as I recall, and both Yeates and Marvel took some shots, but these two issues were the weakest in the series because the message kinda got watered down and the whole storyline became a bit incoherent as a result. The final two issues, 7 & 8, got back to the original idea of what the 'Spirits were and what they did, with Cusick taking Doot to Tibet to meet the High Lama and to release the souls they have accumulated over the course of their recent adventuring. Problem is, the talking fish again has made a jealous and hate-filled Yeti on the mountain aware of what he needs to do to inhabit the body of the High Lama and become all-powerful. The enlightened yeti chops off his hand, which becomes a totem that facilitates the body switch and transforms the former beast into a malevolent, spirit-eating monster, laying in wait for our pair as they climb the mountain to the Lama's home. The storyline ends with surprising and somewhat tragic results, and the final page of #8 is a literal curtain call of all the characters that have appeared in the previous issues, and they all come out with one puzzling exception. It was a charming and clever way to end the series.

If Perry has done any comics series since Timespirits, I'm unaware of them. I do think he's made a name for himself as a writer of Star Wars novels; at least I think it's him because he's left it off his online resume. Yeates mostly went on to illustrate a few issues of Zorro for Topps with Don McGregor, does a lot of ERB-related work, and still does the occasional job for DC and Marvel. The Tomahawk one-shot Vertigo Visions he did in the mid-90s was especially nice, and reminded me a little of Timespirits. I did email Yeates a while ago and ask him if he had any 'Spirits pages for sale, but he said he didn't want to let any of them go...obviously this book meant a lot to him.

Somehow, from the look of what they're soliciting so far for the new Epic line, I don't think there will be room for a series as unassuming, yet intricate, as Timespirits. Too bad...I think there were a lot more stories yet to tell about Doot and Cusick.