Saturday Splash Page #192

"Remains," in Scout: War Shaman #5, by Tim Truman (writer/artist), Sam Parsons (painter), Tim Harkins (letterer)

After returning to Earth from the mission on the space station at the end of Scout, Emanuel Santana disappears into the hills for years. A brief encounter with Rosa Winter in the final issue of New America revealed he met a woman and had two sons.

Scout: War Shaman is set a year later, in 2015, after the mother of his children has died, and people are starting to nose around the valley where they'd lived. So Santana and his sons, Victorio and Tahezy, leave the valley in search of a new place to live. 

But the world hasn't stood still in the time Santana's spent hidden away. A steamboat trip brings him into conflict with pirates. The survivors among his old friend Doody's followers are still around, and when they realize Victorio has strange powers, their priests decide he's the prophesied child Doody mentioned before his death, the Life-Giver. Which sets off a long, and frankly annoying, pattern of them trying to abduct Victorio, or betraying Santana to keep the kid, and Truman contriving some reason why Santana doesn't blow their damn heads off and be done with it. I'm not a parent, but I'd figure the first time someone tries stealing your kid would be the last time.

(The series sometimes, like in the pages above, has narration boxes from an interview between physicians and the "marauder" Victorio, in the year 2030. Which suggests whatever notions those priests had, Victorio didn't quite live up to them, if he got captured. Maybe Truman has plans for another series that never got off the ground.) 

The reason is usually a greater threat. Specifically, Rosa Winter, now titular head of what's left of the U.S. She's trying to pull the country, which has fallen into more of a wide mass of city-states, back together, under her rule. Her methods are of the classic style: You can surrender, or you can be killed. Your choice. The "priests" think she's the darkness the Life-Bringer must combat, which is bad enough. And Santana can't seem to avoid crossing paths with her, to the extent that, when she's overthrown by an old acquaintance of theirs, back from the dead, they work together.

(Truman, for reasons I don't know, uses a lot of the same design elements for "Redwire" as he did for GrimJack, minus the beret.)

Until the inevitable betrayal, of course. Rosa regains the upper hand, but decides Santana's too dangerous to let live, even if he'd agree to work with her. But from her perspective, she let Santana go AWOL originally, and when he reappeared, he flipped the world on its head, killing the President and setting off a wild chain of events that Rosa often found herself caught up in. There were wars, cities were nuked, lots of people died.

And then, at a certain point, Santana just disappeared into the hills again. To start a family, while Rosa was the one left behind, carving off pieces of her soul trying to protect her country. It's all his doing, but she's the one with the scars, the mechanical hands and mechanical eye. She helps him save his sons, but when she wants to save her adopted daughter, Santana knocks her unconscious and takes her hostage, leaving the young woman to be locked up. (Truman never tells us what happened to her, but I assume it's nothing good, given how the book ends.) 

Santana would no doubt argue that he wasn't given a choice in that initial quest. The gods pushed it on him against his will, and everything after was just him trying to deal with the consequences. But Rosa would have no reason to think that was anything more than evidence he's nuts and she should have stopped him from leaving in the first place. Every time they work together, Rosa loses something.

But she made her choices. She could have withdrawn to the shadows after she was presumed dead in the plane crash. Let Bill Loder run the country into the ground, but no. She had to take revenge. And then she just couldn't leave a power vacuum, so she had to assume control. And then she couldn't allow any elements to survive as persistent threats, so she crushed them. Rosa had a sense of responsibility, or perhaps duty is the better word. It brought her first into contact with power, and later power herself, but she didn't use that power responsibly, if that makes sense.

Saturday Splash Page #191

"Dead Owl," in Scout #11, by Tim Truman (writer/artist), Sam Parsons (painter), Tim Harkins (letterer)

When Tim Truman stepped away from being penciler on GrimJack, it was to work on his own series, Scout. Set in, at that time, the future of 1999, where the United States is an isolated, resource-depleted, impoverished nation, Scout followed Emanuel Santana, an Apache taken from his home, trained in the military, who eventually went AWOL, only to reappear on a quest to kill four dangerous monsters, plus their master, that had taken the form of humans and were doing great harm. As the "Master" was the President of the United States, Santana's actions did not go unnoticed or without larger repercussions.

The first six of the twenty-four issues are Santana's quest. Not one he wanted, but one he was chosen for and can't escape. I assume if he tried, the dreams and "temporal manifestations" would just keep getting worse until he was driven entirely mad, so he does the work. And he helps some people, and hurts others. The power he needs requires a sacrifice - of someone else. That doesn't endear him to people, nor does it endear him to himself. Truman draws Santana as lean, with a lined face and armed for bear. A bit of roughness to the lines like Joe Kubert, that suggests someone that has had almost everything soft about them worn away until only the bone and gristle are left. 

But Santana's not unfeeling, and the weight of all this nearly pushes him to commit suicide. But, ultimately, he finishes his quest. Kills the monsters and their Master. And then, heads off into the wilderness, as though he will just be able to live an ordinary, peaceful life after everything. The red bandana he wore like a mask is turned into a headband instead. He's not some masked vigilante hero, he's just a guy.

The remaining three-quarters of the series is Santana being disabused of that notion. His actions have put all sorts of things in motion he couldn't have guessed at. Vice-President Carver was hooked on drugs to keep her out of the way once she got Grail the woman vote, but now she's President. And if she wants to be more than a puppet of Grail's former spiritual advisor, Bill Loper, she's got to get clean and pull herself together. Which draws in an old acquaintance of Santana's, Rosa Winter. Initially ordered to catch Santana, she got shifted to bodyguard detail for Carver in time to avoid getting killed when Santana cut his way to Grail. Carver grows dependent on her, and eventually in love with her.

That never goes anywhere, but Winter's position of trust means she keeps ending up in the middle of things as they escalate. Either because Carver trusts her, or because Loper wants her away from Carver. So when a young man tortured and blinded because of Scout becomes a messianic figure who seizes control of an old nuclear missile facility, Winter's tasked with ousting them. And she hunts Scout down for the purpose. Eventually, Truman escalates things to a full-blown war between the U.S. and Communist Mexico, among others (including Beau Smith stand-in Beau LaDuke.) This after Scout is captured and imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital, where he meets a man named Monday.

Truman (with Flint Henry as artist) had been publishing back-up stories about Monday: the Eliminator for several issues by that point, but it wasn't entirely clear it was in the same, particular crappy future. Especially since Monday had apparently been alive since at least the time of Roman legions, fighting the "Legion of Man", who are your typical shadowy group of lever-pullers. The war is a result of their manipulations, though pushing it to the point one or both sides might use nukes seems kind of stupid. 

In a story where Santana was touched (bullied, really) by gods, and a blind man develops a different kind of sight and the ability to compel others, immortality isn't that weird. But however Santana perceived the people, or monsters, he killed, at the end of the day, it boiled down to them being the type to use and discard others, or even the world, like trash for their own benefit. Santana remarks at one point most of the people in Houston were living in subways because large chunks of the city had no electricity, and the only way to reach apartments was via elevators. Apartments which relied on pressurized, recirculated air to be breathable. He's not fixing those problems, but maybe by killing the people benefiting from them, the problems could be solved.

I guess the Legion of Man was going to do the same on a larger scale, but the resolution is essentially that Monday is watching over the world like God, ready to drop the hammer if anyone steps too far out of line (read: uses nukes.) But otherwise, the world will go on as it was. It feels like the problem was only introduced to be answered in a way that wouldn't actually change anything. But it could also been seen as Santana again being used by powers larger than himself, for things he doesn't necessarily want to be involved with.

Random Back Issues #150 - Scout #8

Nobody likes a know-it-all chipmunk.

Scout, aka Emilio Santana, has killed the 4 spirits he was tasked to kill. Unfortunately, the last one was President of what passes for the United States. So he's spent the last six months laying low in the desert Southwest, accompanied by a gahn (a guiding spirit) in the form of a chipmunk. But Scout's tired of living on roots, sorrel and seeds, and healed up enough to hunt.

Gahn guarantees they'll find something today, though Scout's dubious they're going to locate any food scaling a mesa. Well, he finds two figures waiting for him, but I'm not sure you'd want to eat either of 'em. One he calls "The Clown," the other "The Godeh." The Godeh reminds Santana when he stoned the kitten of a little girl as a child. The girl's mother promised they'd get him some day. Certainly took their asses long enough.

But Scout's got guns, and that seems to be enough, although Gahn remarks they're only dead, 'if you want them to be, Santana.' Out of bullets, or at least needing time to reload, Scout's attacked by a sort of wolf creature that flings him around while speaking in riddles. It hates him, it loves him. It wouldn't be there if he didn't know what it was. It hurt him most when he couldn't see it, but when he can't see it, it won't be a danger to him any longer.

They seem to merge, it takes Santana's form, then vanishes. Gahn explains Scout needed to see the next monster he'll have to kill: the one inside himself. I don't think Scout has much luck with that, but maybe I'm remembering the plot wrong. Either, he'll have to handle it alone, as Gahn's job is now done. It departs, telling Santana he's a lousy cook but that there's a jackrabbit in the rocks below that'll make a good dinner. Also, he'll have company in the morning.

The company is Doody, a blind young man Santana met earlier in his quest. Doody has, in the span of 4 months, become a prophet, traveling and speaking the word of the good books. By which I mean the Lord of the Rings. Thanking Santana for sharing his breakfast and the location of a water source, Doody and his large horde of followers continue on their way.

There's also a couple of pages of a subplot where an Israeli special ambassador briefly meets with the newly-elected President Carver about Israel offering aid to the U.S. Carver's intrigued, but her vice-president (and religious wackjob who worked for the previous president, who Santana killed) Bill Loper is against it. The U.S. doesn't need any help! Certainly not in digging its own grave. Either way, Ambassador Glanzman isn't bothered by the tirade and says the offer still stands. He'll pop up a lot in later issues.

{9th longbox, 54th comic. Scout #8, by Tim Truman (writer/artist), Sam Parsons (painter), Tim Harkins (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #127

"Let Loose the Bunnies of War," in Starslayer #17, by John Ostrander (writer), Tim Truman (artist), Bruce Patterson (guest collaborator?) Janice Cohen (colorist), John Workman (letterer)

Starslayer was Mike Grell's creation, about, near as I can tell, a Celt space pirate named Torin MacQuillon and his crew, getting into various space pirate-style hi-jinks. All while not wearing a shirt of course, because this is a Mike Grell character.

I say, "near as I can tell," because I only really own back-up stories. Dave Stevens' "The Rocketeer" started in the back of the earliest issues of Starslayer, when it was still being published at Pacific. That only lasted through issue 3 - long enough for Cliff Secord to use the rocket to rescue a stunt pilot. After issue 6, the book moved to First Comics, and in issue 10 John Ostrander and Tim Truman introduced a little character named GrimJack.

During its stint as a back-up feature, GrimJack had three storylines. The first, "Mortal Gods", establishes the nature of Cynosure, a nexus where different realities phase into and out of contact with each other, and where each has its own natural laws that govern it. A bum can cross the street and become a god, with all that entails. Truman establishes Gaunt's look, with the beret, the cloak that conceals pistols, the scar over the eye, the death's head grin when he's got a god that's wandered out if its realm dead to rights. It also establishes his version of Cynosure, all dirty, narrow alleys, buildings with peeling wallpaper crowded together.

Ostrander sets up not only that Gaunt knows all about how the city works, but also his unwillingness to abandon friends, even in the face of a beating, or when the friend is pleading with him to just go. Also, that if you decline GrimJack's first offer to walk away, you don't get a second chance.

"Buried Past" establishes vampires exist and that Gaunt knows a bit about them and magic, but it ends up being more about Gaunt's past. Only a bit, about the one period of time where he found a little peace before it all fell apart. 

And then you get "Night of the Killer Bunnies," where Gaunt (unwisely) agrees to help a dimension of talking cartoon animals avoid death at the hands of vicious, giant, heavily-armed rabbits. But it does expand the range of the types of worlds you could expect GrimJack to interact with. It's not going to be strictly medieval or gritty noir type settings.

As annoying and ridiculous as Gaunt finds the whole thing, he still completes the job. It's also when Ostrander and Truman introduce Blacjacmac, Gaunt's best friend and leader of his own team of mercs. Much busting of chops commences.

After that, Ostrander and Truman handle an entire issue of Starslayer, as Torin's been captured by some doofy aristocrat in Cynosure, and his crew hire GrimJack to help with the rescue. A lot of the interactions between the Starslayer cast tend to zip right past me, but this is first time we see GrimJack encounter Chris Heyman, a Space Marine that pops up later in GrimJack during a conflict with the serial killing cyborg Kalibos, and the Sphinx, a wizard Gaunt fights against and with at various times through the Ostrander/Mandrake run.

The team-up story highlights a certain tendency of GrimJack's, where if you behave haughtily towards him, as the woman who owns Torin's ship does, Gaunt will really jam you up on his prices. If you behave fair and honorably, he might make a decision that's very poor for his bottom line. That would come up early in GrimJack, where a kid has only single coin to his name, and Gaunt accepts that a sufficient payment to find the kid's dad.

Sunday Splash Page #217

 

"Room Full of Future Luggage," in GrimJack: Manx Cat #6, by John Ostrander (writer), Timothy Truman (artist), Lovern Kindzierski (color artist), John Workman (letterer)

Set between the end of Killer Instinct and the beginning of the stories from the '80s, Manx Cat continues to fill in some gaps in the backstory, while providing a fairly entertaining adventure. 

It's a difficult stretch for Gaunt. He's still settling in to being independent again, and seems to take that to mean he should keep everyone away from him. Gordon's acting as bartender, but the two are hostile to each. Gaunt barks orders, Gordon makes smart-ass remarks, and is clearly more than a little resentful of what happened to Jo Chaney in Killer Instinct. Gaunt saves Bob the Gatorlizard, but keeps trying to make him leave. It's a contrast with BlacJacMac, who's been leading a merc crew since the Demon Wars. Gaunt lives in a crappy bar, BlacJac has an entire multi-story compound. BlacJac has a new steady girlfriend (Goddess, who hasn't decided she hates Gaunt yet), Gaunt has an employee that gives him shit constantly. He's not really close to anyone, and he's going to have to decide if that's how he wants to keep it.

The Manx Cat is a MacGuffin that popped up from time to time, starting with the very first GrimJack story. It's an obsidian statuette, and Gaunt seems to be forever stealing from one person for another person. This story reveals there's a reason it constantly ends up with other people, and that there's much more to it than just being a feline-themed Maltese Falcon. Gaunt finds himself in a situation where he doesn't know everything that's going on, isn't sure who's telling the truth, and has enemies on all sides. Which I believe is what GrimJack calls "Tuesday." 

The middle issues send him into the past, suggesting that Gaunt's been tied up with Cynosure since long before his "first" death. That felt contradictory to me the first time I read this, but some of other GrimJack stories (including Demon Knight) had established the notion time isn't a straight line when it comes to Cynosure. So maybe Gaunt's decision during the Ostrander/Mandrake run cast ripples all along the timeline.

This mini-series has more of a murky feel to it than Killer Instinct, but I think that owed more to the printing, or maybe the coloring. Truman's linework seemed blurred and things weren't shadowed so much as muddied. Truman opts for an look to the buildings during the sequences set in the past. A little Victorian, a little Renaissance era maybe. Lot of tiled roofs and narrow walkways. Even though there are demons openly roaming about, the city doesn't seem as dark or a closed in as it does in Gaunt's time. And St. John of Knives isn't nearly as morally compromised as Gaunt, either.

Sadly, this marks the end of Grim Spring. There will be no more GrimJack-related splash page for quite some time. But next week begins a 3-week stretch on a different (very different) creator-owned series.

Sunday Splash Page #216

 

"Extreme Vamp Makeover," in GrimJack: Killer Instinct #5, by John Ostrander (writer), Tim Truman (artist), Steve Becker (assistant inker), Lovern Kindzierski (color artist), John Workman (letterer)

You didn't think Grim Spring was over, did you? Oh no, like the character himself, it won't stay dead. In the mid-to-late 2000s, Ostrander and Truman reunited for a pair of mini-series, Killer Instinct being the first. During the Flint Henry run, Steve Pugh had drawn a couple of different stories that covered most of John Gaunt's life from childhood up through the Demon Wars, but there was still a gap from there to the first story published as a back-up in Starslayer. It's in that gap this mini-series is set.

In some ways, it feels like a story designed to answer questions we don't really need to know. Was anyone demanding to know how Gaunt came to own a bar called Munden's, where the bartender is Gordon Munden? Or how Gaunt's cop buddy Roscoe lost his eye? Or why Gaunt favors "Chaney" as an alias?

I tend to doubt it, but maybe it's wrong to look at those as anything other window dressing. Easter eggs for the fans. In the larger sense, the story is about how Gaunt became his own man. His history is of other people using him. Fighting for the amusement of aristos in the Arena. Being led around by Major Lash. Working for sniveling bureaucrats in the Transdimensional Police, and, when this series starts, for Mayfair as part of Cadre. It's Gaunt as a gun, someone who simply allows himself to be pointed at a target, and then he kills them, no questions asked. How did he become the guy we see in the ongoing series? The one always determined to do things his way, to seek out answers no matter who gets hurt or pissed off?

So it's GrimJack's journey to reassert control over his life. Who he aids, what he seeks, who he kills, those are going to be his choices going forward. But Ostrander and Truman make sure to keep it interesting, with lots of interesting bits and pieces. Telekinetic ninja mimes as assassins. Stones that can contain a person's soul, and are admissible as testimony because a soul can't lie, apparently. The Knights Sewar. One of the very earliest GrimJack stories was about people who played at being vampires or creatures of the night. In this story, we get a glimpse of what it's like for the actual vampires and their somewhat tenuous place in a city leery of another demon incursion.

I said I didn't really need to know how Gaunt came to own Munden's Bar, but I did actually enjoy his introduction to Gordon and the hostile start to their relationship. The notion not everyone in the Pit saw the Dancer's rebellion the same way as Gaunt.

As you might guess, Truman's not one for splash pages (I think Mandrake's run as artist had more splash pages than all the other GrimJack comics combined), but he brings back the same look and atmosphere to Cynosure from his original stint on the book. Most of the places Gaunt goes are dingy and cramped. Subways, apartments, clubs, everything has a grime to it. Even Mayfair's private office feels close, the tight panels making it seem like there's no room to move. While the improvements in printing and color certainly make Truman's art clearer, I think it takes a bit of the gloom away from the surroundings. 

His GrimJack is also a bit bulkier, but he's also younger here, so maybe that's to be expected. Have to cinch up the belt when you're self-employed instead of living on a government paycheck.

Sunday Splash Page #212

 

"Do Not Disturb While Drinking," in GrimJack #1, by John Ostrander (writer), Timothy Truman (artist), Janice Cohen (colorist), John Workman (letterer)

Aw yeah, welcome to Grim Spring! Where bullet holes bloom like wildflowers. If I could be said to be ride-or-die for one comic writer or artist, it would be John Ostrander, and this is the series that started that, even if it was an inauspicious start.

Back around 2000, my cousin who is 15 years older, gave me a longbox of comics he had. This included the first 48 issues of GrimJack (minus issue 23 for some reason). I didn't know what it was, so at first, I passed them over. Read everything else in the box (about all I remember were some DeFalco-era Thors, about 10 issues of The 'Nam, maybe some black-and-white indy comic stuff), but there's not a hell of a lot to do at my grandmother's in August, so I finally gave GrimJack a shot. I was quickly hooked.

The series is set in Cynosure, a pan-dimensional city where all realities intersect eventually. Each reality retains whatever laws of physics it runs by, which allows Ostrander and Tim Truman to present basically any setting they want. If they want hi-tech robots and such, they can do that. Spirits and the supernatural, sure. Talking fish-people, absolutely. As GrimJack describes it, 'Guns work here. Magic works there. Swords work everywhere.'

GrimJack (real name, John Gaunt) himself is a mercenary, for hire to do most anything you need. Which again, allows for a variety of stories. Mysteries, supernatural horror, stories about cloning or even an issue long-Smokey and the Bandit riff with a guy who had himself built into his big rig and talks in music lyrics. The first issue is a fairly standard noir about a missing diary, with the added twist that the diary's author's ghost is hanging around. 

For most of Tim Truman's time as artist, which is the first 19 issues, that's much of what the book is. Mysteries. What Ostrander is good at, though, is having smaller mysteries or cases that might only run an issue or two, but they feed into something larger that builds slowly but surely. And sometimes those mysteries involve time travel to the Old West, or children being abducted for gladiatorial combat, just to change things up.

Ostrander and Truman use the variety to gradually fill out Cynosure. How the size and constantly shifting boundaries of the city make it difficult to run effectively, so that business is king. Which is why time travel is strictly regulated, because it might void a contract. The rivalries between the different law enforcement agencies. The fact clones have no rights. The way elections work. All these bits get referenced or revealed, and there's some care to how it's done, so the pieces seem to fit. It makes the city feel like more of a place, despite being such a haphazard amalgamation. And GrimJack's been around a while, and has a busy history, so he acts as our guide. He's seen and been most places, knows how things work, and Ostrander makes that experience one of the character's advantages that he uses to survive.

That and he's willing to fight dirty. Actually, enthusiastic to fight dirty might be more accurate.

Truman's art is well-suited for the noir elements, as even the nicer parts of Cynosure have a grimy feel, while the less nice parts are drenched in shadows and garbage. GrimJack spends a lot of time in places that have gone to seed, assuming they were ever good enough in the first place to get worse. But he can also draw monsters for the horror elements. Things with too many teeth and sharp talons, vacant red eyes. There are a lot of bridges and structures that have an almost organic look, with spires and ridges like pieces of bone. Adds a bit of menace to everything.

Likewise, the characters tend to wear their age on their faces and bodies. In the lines and wrinkle, the grey hair and the scars. Gaunt's in shape, but he's also around 50, so he's not Captain America or Thor. None of the major characters are like that. They actually remind me of Joe Kubert's, in that they have that wiry musculature that makes them look like they've been rough-hewn from stone. They haven't lived the sort of lives that allow for any fat deposits to build up. Hard times.

As mentioned, Truman departs (I believe to work on Scout) after issue 19. Which is right in the middle of the Trade War storyline that acts as a sort of mid-stage denouement. Some plotlines are wrapped up, and some characters have to step back and reassess. One of the interesting things about the Trade War is how GrimJack's own flaws help bring it about. He's portrayed right from the first issue as someone who is uncompromising about the truth. As he puts it, if he gets a glimpse of it, he has to have it all. That, combined with his unwillingness to let anything go, can be a strength. It's what means he won't abandon a friend, or a client. It also means he'll dig up things better left buried, without considering the wider impacts.

One thing that's an issue throughout the series I might as well mention right at the start is, GrimJack's love interests die. A lot. Granted that a lot of people around him tend to die, but he has more dead girlfriends than Matt Murdock and Kyle Rayner put together. I feel like Ostrander can usually show how the characters' own choices brought them to that place, but he does get a lot of mileage out of Gaunt's inability to handle losing people he cares about in a healthy manner. Though I'm not sure anyone in this series actually deals with their emotions in a healthy way. If they did, they probably wouldn't be hanging around Gaunt.

Random Back Issues #65 - Scout: War Shaman #6

Come on kid, it's obvious the rabbit was hidden under your shirt. You gotta at least get a big hat or coat or something

War Shaman was set several years after Tim Truman's original Scout series. At this point, Emanuel Santana and his two sons Tahzey and Victorio have taken refuge in a community in some caves. Unfortunately, the Army has set up shop in a town nearby. Santana and one of the cave-dwellers, a Jackson Walker observe them from a bluff nearby. Walker says he can "read" the soldiers, that they're tired and plan to set up shop here. He explains most people have such abilities, but misplace them, and his are strongest among the folks in the cave. He tells Santana he's got it, too, but calls it something else. Santana replies he doesn't need a sixth sense to know to get out of the heat, and they return to the caves.

Back in the caves, Tahzey and Victorio find some of the local kids messing with a rabbit. The leader, named Kidd, "mind-kills" the rabbit, which makes Victorio rush out to object. Apparently the cave folks haven't taught their kids about tolerance, because they call the boys "scummies" and mock their dark skin, calling them dirty. Kidd warns he could mind-kill them too, and Tahzey counters that he's no rabbit. As they leave, Victorio holds the rabbit close and viola! It's alive again.

Kidd and his lackeys are stunned, but a pair of religious nuts called The Dead Men saw it and are sure Victorio is the prophesied one to save them from "The Beast." They plan to abduct him, to protect him from his own father. Seems like a good way to get shot, but Santana had history with the man who founded their cult, so they're kind of a sore spot for him.

Back in town, one man beats the hell out of another. The one getting beat up abandoned his post for a midnight rendezvous with their Commander's daughter. Who is actually the President's daughter, but Rosa Winter's adopted her some time after Santana killed the President. Rosa tries to present this as a lesson, but Laura's not too impressed. 

Back in the caves, Walker's explaining how the entire cave system relates to a Hopi story about the creation and destruction of the world. That the creator grew displeased with how humans were fucking up the world, and those with the proper senses were able to find the caves and ride it out until the creator was willing to try again. He says they're currently on the fourth try, and they've taken to these caves to wait for the fifth.

When Santana points out one world was enough for his people, Walker counters that the Hopi were always more creative than the Apache. Maybe, but their creator kind of sounds like a schmuck, to keep trying again even though humans fuck up the same way every time. Santana decides to snoop around town and after killing one guard with a stupid mark over his eye (between this and GrimJack, Truman was really fond of giving people those sorts of tattoos over one eye), confronts Rosa. The two of them have history going back to boot camp, and it's been a complicated thing. 

He finds out Rosa's been through some changes, namely, she might be more machine than human after the injuries she sustained cleaning up the messes Santana created. For her part, Rosa's decided all her problems stem from not killing him the night he went AWOL, and she's going to rectify it. I've heard closure is an important part of the healing process. So is not picking at scabs. Santana's boxed in, but Laura comes to check on her mom and he's got a hostage. He talks about how Rosa's called the Beast and the Butcher, and kills anyone who doesn't fit her vision of what America should be. I'm not sure Santana's hands are clean enough to be throwing stones at anyone. He tells Rosa to take care of Laura, because she's the only human part she has left. Notable that he and Laura are both crying by then, but Rosa's not. Of course, one of her eyes is mechanical, so maybe she has no more tear ducts.

He's out the window and away on Rosa's motorcycle, but before she can hunt him down, a guy named Redwire shows up. Tells her she has her job leading the Army and rebuilding America. Leave chasing 'a rabbit' to a hunter like him. I know Redwire is someone Santana encountered and tried to kill during Scout, but I can't remember exactly who.

[9th longbox, 64th comic. Scout: War Shaman #6, by Timothy Truman (writer/artist), Sam Parsons (painter), Tim Harkins (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #18 - GrimJack: Killer Instinct #5

Maybe so, but you gotta admit it'll fit easily on a tombstone.

As usual, GrimJack's gotten himself tangled up in something big. In this case, his boss in Cadre, that'd be the eloquent Mayfair up there, setting Gaunt up as a patsy in Mayfair's play to seize control of all the security angencies in the city.

Gaunt had been unwinding things steadily with the aid of the only other person to survive the fake mission to kill a politician named Ilsa Kalter, Jo Chaney. That included figuring out Kalter's body was being possessed and manipulated by a vampire named Simone, while Kalter's soul is trapped in a ka stone. Good news is, you can question ka stone's and they can't lie, so they're admissible as evidence. Bad news, Chaney's been a plant of Mayfair's the whole time.

This gets Gaunt thinking about how he keeps taking jobs that let everyone else make his decisions for him, and why. He decides he's done with that, dons the outfit that was his standard for the first three years of his ongoing series.

He has a decent plan. Give the kaa stone to his old cop partner Roscoe. Kalter's soul will help bring down Mayfair and his whole scheme. Plus it earns Roscoe brownie points with his angry boss. Little bit of an apology for costing Roscoe his eye back when they were chasing the Dancer. Meanwhile, Gaunt gets himself out of town for a while until things settle. If he can get past the sentient dinosaurs hunting for him at the train station. Fortunately, John's willing to resort to chemical warfare with his grenades from the "Knights Sewar". I love the random stuff Ostrander and Truman throw into this series.

Unfortunately, Gaunt may have underestimated Mayfair's reach, as the kaa stone gets confiscated, and the whole thing is quietly buried. Leaving GrimJack no choice but to return to Cynosure to confront Mayfair, but his old boss has his own problems. All of his other agents have been turned by Simone and her newest recruit, Chaney. Gaunt's bad luck with women holding true to form. Plus, Mayfair released Kalter's soul, so there goes the evidence against him, if they even make it out.

There was one more issue to go in this mini-series after this, which gets the status quo to where it was when Ostrander and Truman originally started GrimJack as a back-up series in Starslayer. They did one more mini-series, The Manx Cat, through IDW a few years after this one that was set some time after this one.

{5th longbox, 210th comic. GrimJack: Killer Instinct #5, by John Ostrander (writer), Lovern Kindzierski (colorist), John Workman (letterer)}

A Little Fun Down on the Farm

I would say the person who talks to chipmunks might be the stupid one, but you're the boss, lady. I picked up the first volume of Tim Truman's Scout back in January. This is from Scout #2, with Tim Truman on words and art, Steve Oliff on colors, and Tim Harkins on letters.

By this point, Scout (Emanuel Santana) has already killed a prominent smut-peddler who was actually the Owl Man Giant, a monster of Apache legend and one of four Scout is supposed to kill. One of the other four is the current President of the U.S., so Scout's got a bit of heat on him. He's also got a tagalong in the form of Missy, a survivor of his assault on the Owl Man Giant. She doesn't know what the hell's going on, or if it's smart to stick with this guy, but she doesn't like her odds without him, so rock and a hard place.

This time around, Scout attacks Waltz at one of his big farms (where the workers don't get paid enough to feed themselves). Waltz isn't strictly human, either, but with a little help from an autobailer, Scout takes another one down. By issue's end, two of his old Army Ranger acquaintances have caught up, and they'll be dogging his trail for some time (One of them will be after him all the way to the end).

Scout deals with the Four Monsters fairly early in the series, but that doesn't come close to solving the problems of the U.S., so it isn't some happy ending. Especially because by then, Scout's done enough things to ensure people are going to be hounding him forever. And he's set several dominoes in motion he would have never expected that pop up later on. That's one of the things I like about the book, it has the same sense of things being interconnected and building over a period of time that the book Truman was working on prior to this had. That book being GrimJack.

There's an interview in the back of the trade where Truman admits he's the reason it took so long for the series to be collected, because he doesn't like looking back at his early art. I like it just fine, other than I think the monsters could stand to be more abstract looking, less human-shaped. Shadows and limbs that stretch abnormally (the Antelope Monster that appears a few issues from this one has a good decayed, patchwork feel to it.) Scout supposedly sees them as they really are, but I wonder if he isn't still seeing them in terms he can comprehend.

It's not exactly a post-apocalypse setting, because it seems like all that ended was the comfortable way of life Americans were accustomed to thinking was their birthright. The rest of the world has moved on around it, left it a rotting corpse that doesn't even have anything anyone else wants to take. There are times in this book that I think Truman really nailed it on how things would turn out.

31 Days of Scans - 5 Character Dream Team

I said last December I wanted to do a few of those "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" rosters this year, and thus far, I haven't. Because I decided to wait and kick it off with this one. As usual, these can be difficult, because there are so many options. Which is why I have to restrict myself in some ways, or I'll never make a decision. This time around, I opted for characters created outside Marvel and DC. So, same rules apply as the last time, only there'll be no Mastermind, since it states 5 characters only.

The Leader: Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener's Atomic Robo. For the purposes of this exercise, Robo is in his normal body. However, I'm not sure precisely when I'm taking him from. It might be simpler, in terms of getting the team together, to take him from the 1940s (for reasons that will become clear shortly). But if I take '70s Robo, we get possible Carl Sagan appearances and Robo wears a Gilligan hat sometimes. If I take current day Robo, we get the benefit of considerable experience and greater scientific knowledge in our Robo. With the present day, it's easy enough for Dr. Dinosaur's Time Bomb to throw Robo to the '40s, or perhaps another universe. There were his multiple run-ins with the Shadow from Beyond Time, or Tesla's device that opens a doorway to the vampire dimension (which Majestic-12 later got its hands on). Or something else we haven't seen yet. The options are there, and really, any Robo will be good.

So Robo is going to be the leader, but he's also going to be the brains of the outfit, at least as far as science goes. In more criminal areas, there are at least 2 characters on this team more experienced. However, given the nature of the world some of these characters inhabit, Robo is going to run up against some things he is going to have difficulty squaring with his views on how things work. Magic for one, time travel for another. One of the things I greatly enjoy about Atomic Robo is when he gets exasperated with stupidity or nonsense and resorts to sarcasm. Probably because that is how I respond to stupidity and nonsense. I expect this team to exasperate and confound Robo repeatedly. And everyone is a strong personality in their own way, so keeping them together is going to be a challenge. Especially because, in a crisis, Robo seems inclined to try and do everything himself and keep his Action Scientists at a safe distance. Understandable, since he's bulletproof and they aren't, but I doubt this crew will be as accepting. But he'll bring lightning guns, and lightning guns heal all wounds. With horrible burns, but still.

The Man with a Boat: Doug TenNapel's Earthworm Jim. This one is fudging it a bit since, a) Jim was originally a video game character, and b) the comics he did appear in were published by Marvel. But once again, Blog Commissioner allows it (all those illegal payoffs, er, paid off). Jim may or may not have a boat, but he does have a rocket large enough to carry a couple of passengers, and capable of traveling to other star systems. Close enough. (Note: One could substitute the Tick, and it would largely achieve the same effect, but I prefer Jim and it's my team, so nyeah.)

Jim operates in a sort of Silver Age world (which is why I can't be sure he doesn't have a Worm-Boat. He had a Worm-Cycle in the cartoon). Heroes keep their word, and triumph because they believe in things greater than themselves, like honor, or true love. Things that ought to be bizarre are treated as largely unremarkable. Radiation gives you super-powers, not cancer (though the powers are more likely to be funny than useful, as the need for jokes requires). Problems can be solved with science that makes not the slightest bit of sense. In a lot of ways, putting Jim on this team is a way to torment Robo with a heroic version of Dr. Dinosaur. There are going to be times Jim will suggest a completely idiotic solution to a problem (like dressing up as waiters to fool pursuing henchcats into eating explosives dressed up as seafood), and in the time it takes Robo to start listing all the ways that's nonsense, it'll work.

Of course other times, the nonsense solution won't work at all, because it's nonsense. In that event, Jim can just fall back on blasting things. Robo should at least appreciate having another person on the team who solves many of their problems with combinations of shooting, jumping, and hitting.

The Rogue: Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin's Bandette. This could put Bandette out of her depth, which by itself might make it worthwhile. Robo and Jim have both dealt with threats that could have ended existence. Then again, Bandette quite likes the world, because it has so many things for her to take from people, she'd be quite willing to help. Neither of the first two characters are all that great at stealth. But they are both fairly upright guys, so I wonder how much friction there would be about her stealing. Because it's a certainty if they storm the combined lair of Helsingard and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head and she sees a painting she likes, she'll take it. I'm pretty sure she can talk circles around Jim at will, which won't stop him from pleading she abandon her life of crime, and when that fails, probably trying to haul her off to jail.

Robo's going to be a harder sell. But Robo has worked with governments in the past, even though he doesn't trust their motives, because he fears how much worse they'll make things if he leaves them to clean it up themselves. So working with a thief who is more than happy to assist the police in bringing down other, more serious, criminals might be something he can live with. Until it puts the whole team in the crosshairs of someone better left alone. . .

I expect Bandette to enjoy the experience immensely. She's going to have an opportunity to steal things no one else from her world might ever have a chance to even see. She has the chance to become the greatest thief in the entire multiverse, which is the kind of challenge she'd love.

The Muscle: Dave Stevens' Rocketeer. Making Cliff the Muscle is a bit of a joke. If this were the old JLI, Robo would be J'onn, and Bandette would probably be Ted (she's too clever to be Booster). I'm not sure who Jim is, maybe the Big Red Cheese? He has that sort of upright, honest outlook, albeit a little more wacky than Billy. Cliff would be Guy, shooting off his mouth and getting punched in it. I fully expect him to be knocked unconscious within 5 minutes of this group being put together (and I expect Bandette to borrow the rocket pack about 5 seconds later).

Still, Cliff is generally an upright guy despite his temper, and he's more than willing to put his neck on the line. He has a little experience with super-science, so he ought to take a liking to the lightning guns at the very least. I do expect a giant talking worm to shock him (Bandette would probably just respond with some variant of how marvelous it is to meet a giant worm, and set about charming the pants off Jim. Even if she were flustered, she wouldn't show it). Cliff is probably the one who is going to struggle the most to prove his value, so he's going to overreach, make mistakes, try to butt into things that he should have stayed out of.

Also, if you think that Betty will team-up with Bandette at some point, probably to get their hands on some important classified documents, you're absolutely right. Betty's stubborn and enthusiastic nature ought to play well off Bandette's more playful outlook. There will also almost certainly be a team-up between Bandette's dog Pimento, and Butchie, that bulldog that hangs around the diner Cliff eats at most of the time. Hell, we have the possibility of an Atomic Robo/Doc Savage team-up, since the Doc is the one who designed the rocket pack. Hmm, could we tie that into Robo's Flying She-Devils of the Pacific mini-series? Rival jetpack designs, or the She-Devils could have improved on the Doc's design. Basically, my reason for possibly having '40s Robo is to say he and Cliff already inhabit the same universe. Their worlds can at least sort of coexist.

The Woman of Mystery: John Ostrander and Tim Truman's GrimJack. I know you're thinking John Gaunt isn't a woman, and you'd be correct. However, it was established that - spoiler for 25+ year old comic! - having rejected Heaven to save his best friend, Gaunt's fate was tied to the city of Cynosure, and he's doomed to be reborn until the city is destroyed. At least some of the future incarnations we saw in the double-page splash that explained this were female. It could be one of those GrimJacks. A good writer could do something with a character who is a woman currently, and has grown up as a woman, but also remembers past lives as a man just as vividly, and how they choose to identify themselves in light of that. I have no idea, frankly, how GrimJack would approach it, though I expect there'd be an adjustment period when he recalls his past lives and handles it badly. You need someone who isn't me writing this thing for that, but the potential is there.

Setting that aside, GrimJack brings a lot of experience to the table. Even if were aren't using a reincarnation (in which case he has multiple lifetimes), he has decades of conflict in his life. Robo's been alive for awhile, but he's lived comfortably enough he could spend time going to school, running a company, developing entirely new disciplines of science. Gaunt had to spend almost his entire life struggling to survive. Grows up in the shittiest part of Cynosure, the Pit. Gets sent to the Arena to fight for his life for the amusement of the upper class while still a kid. Gets out as a teen, finds a little love and peace in a pocket dimension, then returns home and finds himself in a battle against the literal forces of Hell. Survives that, joins a bounty group called the Lawkillers. Survives that, joins the Transdimensional Police, then the Cadre as an assassin, then becomes a freelance mercenary. He lives and thrives in a city that is constantly changing in size, shape, and population, where the physical laws that govern one street corner may have no bearing around the next block, and that too, is constantly changing. He's pissed off innumerable people, from politicians to bounty hunters to gods. Even if he did catch a bullet eventually, he made past 50 in a profession where a lot of people would be lucky to reach half that. He knows how to survive, is what I'm saying.

It's that knowledge I think the team really needs. Robo can be deceptive, but for him, that means he plays bullet magnet while someone else sets things in motion. Cliff is a generally lousy fighter, and not much good at making plans, and abandons the ones he does make at the drop of a hat. Bandette is sneaky, but tends to let fights drag out because she's having fun. As for Jim, well, despite his great big muscles and his really big ray gun, Jim is still an earthworm, which means he is pretty dumb. Gaunt fights dirty, using any edge he can get. Any weapon, any bit of his surroundings, any distraction, any moment of weakness in his opponent, GrimJack takes advantage of it. He wouldn't have lived as long as he did if he hadn't. Plus, he's getting old, and with the aches and pains, it's just better to end fights quicker sometimes, you know?

Also, I'm curious how he'd respond to Robo. Gaunt had a rule about not allowing Tourbots in his bar (those are ways for people to cheaply travel the city while sitting safely in a chair in an office somewhere, by placing their consciousness in a rolling trashcan), and once of his worst foes was Kalibos, an artificial intelligence that merged science with magic, and kills people to wear their skins so he can roam the city doing as he pleases (sowing discord and chaos as the ultimate expression of his freedom). So GrimJack might have some problems with artificial intelligence. Until Robo helps him put Kalibos down once and for all. Gaunt is, again in JLI terms, Batman, which is not something I'm hugely happy about given my frequent antipathy towards the Bat, but I don't see a better comparison. I do think that, once he got to know them, he'd develop moderately warm feelings. Jim might remind him of his friend Judah the Hammer, Cliff's a young hothead GJ would probably try to keep from getting his head blown off (that said, GrimJack is the one I expect to put out Cliff's lights in the first 5 minutes). I think he'd have to respect Bandette's skill (there will NOT be any romantic relationship between those two. however. Bandette is not spinning the wheel of likely death all his girlfriends have).

As for how you get them all together, rough draft, assuming Robo and Cliff occupy the same universe. There's a mishap with the portal, only they're thrown somewhere other than the vampire dimension, probably Cynosure (or the vampire dimension went into phase with Cynosure and they survived it long enough to emerge into the city, probably joining whatever forces from the city are keeping the vampires from overrunning the susceptible dimensions). At the same time, Bandette's world came into phase, and through some circumstances, she's come into possession of the Manx Cat. Maybe someone from Cynosure came to Paris and found her, and offered her the job. When the Cat gets stolen, GrimJack is the one who always gets dragged in to retrieve it. Which sets off a chase through the city, and Cliff, observing the chase, tries to help Bandette. Which doesn't go well, so Robo jumps in (literally), and GrimJack brings out the heavy artillery. Bandette probably hangs around to watch, or recognizes she has no idea where home is at this stage, and at some point, Robo falls into a section of the city where technology doesn't function, which hopefully slows things down enough nobody gets killed. As for Jim, I expect him to abruptly arrive after an incident involving him trying to make root beer in his garage for a box social he invited his rogues gallery to. He shouldn't have accepted a golf club from Psycrow to stir the mixture doing a thunderstorm. They could potentially end up in a section where technology can develop low-level sentience, in which case his suit would go out of control, and the whole group has to try and contain it, destroy it, or get it to a different area where it'll revert to normal.

Robo ponders the choices that have brought him to this place in "Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur", by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Ronda Patterson (colorist), and Jeff Powell (letterer). Commandeering a giant hamster to stop a shotgun wedding is just another day in the life in Earthworm Jim #2, by Dan Slott (plot), John Lewandowski (script), Barry Crain (pencils), Sam DeLa Rosa (inker), UL Higgins (pencils), Ed Laz (colorist). Bandette is living the dream in Bandette #3, by Paul Tobin (writer), Colleen Coover (artist), Ryan Jurgensen (digital production), and Irina Beffa (design). Cliff is more confident than he ought to be in Rocketeer, Chapter 4 (I couldn't figure out which comic specifically it would be in), by Dave Stevens (writer and artist), Laura Martin (colorist), and Carrie Spiegle (letterer). GrimJack's stint as a dentist ended swiftly amid complaints about his primitive working conditions in GrimJack #1, by John Ostrander (writer), Tim Truman (artist), Janice Cohen (colorist), and John Workman (letterer).

Getting To Know GrimJack - Manx Cat #6

As the Manx Cat mini-series ends, so does this series of posts. Dang, I liked having a guaranteed post each month. Oh well.

Page 1 - There is a group of saurian mercs called the 501st Samurai Salamanders. Despite calling themselves samurai, they do not carry swords. They are BlacJac's major competition as far as mercenary outfits go. Some of Gaunt's basic rules of combat are hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast, and keep moving. Transdimensional Police (TDP) hoverbikes are equipped with some osrt of cannon between the handlebars.

Page 2 - If Gaunt thinks you won't show mercy, then neither will he. Another of his basic rules of combat? Gaunt's able to fly a hoverbike while firing a handgun at enemies around him.

Page 3 - Gaunt will sometimes follow "Texas rules". Not sure what that means. A reference to showing no mercy?

Page 4 - BlacJac had at least one guy in his group called Toejam. Guy has respect for Gaunt, calls him 'Mr. GrimJack'. If BlacJac won't come out of his sanctum during a fight, that's unusual.

Page 5 - Another of GrimJack's rules is to help the living, then bury the dead. A shadow of Mannachs is still visible in the flames emerging from the compound. GrimJack knows a good theif, in this case Darlin' Lil, will find the quickest way into a place. GrimJack knows she feels drawn to the Cat.

Page 6 - Gaunt doesn't think he ever finds the easy way. Lil's not happy to be there, but she's aware that the Cat is what's calling her.

Page 7 - GrimJack's not above stealing a kiss if he thinks it'll help the situation. Also used to women reacting angrily to him doing that.

Page 8 - Lil is not fazed by the prospects of fighting a crazed giant shapeshifter.

Page 9 - Rhian, mentioned is #2, was a girl Gaunt loved, that he left behind in Pdwyr, when he went to fight in the Demon Wars. When he came back, she, her father - Maethe, the wizard who was his mentor - and everyone else had been killed by demons. Mannachs is trying to use these memories against him, but it doesn't work. Gaunt's used to the memories, has he been torturing himself with them for 20 years?

Page 10 - GrimJack not looking forward to fighting a mind-controlled and bloodlusting best friend.

Page 11 - Gaunt tries to break Mannachs' hold on BlacJac by making him angry. Is he basing this off past experience, or is it just anger is what he knows best? Insults BlacJac's independence, manliness to achieve his goal.

Page 12 - BlacJac may have issues with his father. His father had a skull face (or mask), and a big ole Uncle Sam hat. Gaunt says the priority is stopping Mannachs, rather than saving BlacJac. Gaunt seems to move back-and-forth between being a big picture guy, and a little details guy.

Page 13 - Or was he trying to convince himself? He's trying to get BlacJac to snap out of it so he doesn't have to kill him. Mannachs likes causing pain, likes hearing Bob the Gatorlizard sing his pain. BlacJac does not approve.

Page 14 - Bullets not useful against Mannachs. It's easier for Mannachs to control people when they sleep.

Page 15 - Despite what's going on, BlacJac is willing to let GrimJack get away with not explaining what's happening, and to fight a horde of Mannachs' slaves all by himself.

Page 16 - Mannachs barely remembers meeting GrimJack in the past. So, Mannachs' is powerful, but not all-knowing. Or all-remembering. The St. John Knives do hurt Mannachs. Mannachs remembers St. John of Knives.

Page 17 - Gaunt can solve problems without shooting, stabbing, or hitting things. We saw this in #3, but it bears repeating that there is power in song.

Page 18 - Mannachs calls itself the Mistress of Dreams. It can be put to sleep itself.

Page 19 - When Mannachs falls asleep, it reverts to the Manx Cat statuette.

Page 20 - At some point, BlacJac killed a controlled Johnny Aristo. Contrary to his discussion with GrimJack in #2, BlacJac also believes in showing mercy sometimes. Goddess likes for BlacJac to keep his palce clean, or at least not burning and partially exploded.

Page 21 - Shapeshifters can be killed by decaptitation. Darlin' Lil may like bad men. Or she may want to kill GrimJack for this whole mess. Gaunt's apparently never going to tell BlacJac what was going on. BlacJac's idea of payback is to blame the mess on GrimJack.

Page 22 - GrimJack considers Munden's Bar a dive. He is willing to pay his debts, let Bob stay there. GrimJack considers Munden's Bar home now.

Alright, that's a lot of things to learn about a character and his philosophy in just six issues. Not to mention all the things we learned about the world GrimJack lives in, and some of the people he shares it with. Which is pretty neat from where I stand. It tells a complete story, but there's all these other threads and histories just hinted at, which can either pique your interest, or can be ignored without impeding the main story.

Getting To Know GrimJack - Manx Cat #5

We're back again for another round. Not learning as much about GrimJack himself this time, but a bit more about some other folks.

Page 1 - Even though it's probably very powerful, creatures of chaos like Mannachs will make deals with mortals. Why? I don't know.

Page 2 - I've mentioned previously that GrimJack has some experience with the odd things, astral projection, demons and such. He doesn't seem to have been pulled from a body he was hitchiking in and given a body of his own before, but he accepts it quickly enough, which is probably related to all the other experiences he's had.

Page 3 - According to Mannachs, St. John of Knives may wind up being endlessly reborn, and in one of those future lives, he'll be GrimJack. St. John has a fierce independent streak. GrimJack has either a realistic view of himself, or an overly pessimistic one. His comment about grabbing love while you can may be spoken out of experiences he had.

Page 4 - Lord Protector enjoys killing people with his hands, but might be out of practice when it comes to fighting. Brother Dryden (St. John's sidekick) is very skilled in the use of a sword.

Page 5 - GrimJack is unimpressed with threats of death and sorrow throughout his life. GrimJack has a Miller Medallion, and knows how to use it. What is it, and what can it do? It expands a crossroad.

Page 6 - Apparently one thing a Miller Medallion can do is summon every version of person that has will, or may ever exist. They all seem to adapt to the situation as easily as GrimJack did. GrimJack may be a natural leader.

Page 7 - GrimJack's observant in battle.

Page 8 - It's possible to bring someone back from a chaos crossroad.

Page 9 - Mannachs' power may not work the same in normal time and space. That may explain why its face shifted appearance a bit. If he's telling the truth, GrimJack has left a string of angry women in his wake. Doesn't seem to bother him much.

Page 10 - The Lord Protector does have enough power to trap Mannachs in a single place of existence. With a sword in his chest (which has been there for 6 pages at this point).

Page 11 - St. John of Knives is willing to give credit where it's due. The Lord Protector is not gracious about being stabbed and used. The Brothers of Kaddath have a strong sense of duty.

Page 12 - OK, the Lord Protector is really ungracious about being stabbed and used. St. John won't kill an enemy who has helped them. At least not at that moment, likely related to his belief in salvation.

Page 13 - Brothers of Kaddath become the Sleepless Monks. OK, St. John believes salvation is so impermanent that it has to be earned every day.

Page 14 - GrimJack isn't sure he is St. John reborn. Doesn't instinctively trust a chaos creature. GrimJack moves quickly, and his first concern is his friend.

Page 15 - GrimJack has no problem stealing a man's aircar when he needs it. GrimJack says the key to helping someone is not to make it worse. Speaking from experience?

Page 16 - GrimJack has some blades called 'St. John Knives'. Despite the friction between them, GrimJack and Gordon have similar worries. They're both concerned with another, just not the same person. Gordon keeps a gun behind the bar in addition to the knives.

Page 17 - GrimJack appreciates loyalty and camaraderie, but doesn't have much of them in his life. Oddly, tells Gordon something different from what he told the monks. Or he just isn't willing to make promises he thinks he can't keep to people he cares about. Not showing much confidence in his ability to save people.

Page 18 - GrimJack not completely on board with his own idea of showing loyalty to Gordon. Aircar's are not impervious to rocket attacks. Bad things happen to GrimJack when he gets lost in his doubts.

Page 19 - Normally, GrimJack would not have to worry about being shot when near BlacJac's place. BlacJac's well-funded army not enough to keep some people from attacking.

Page 20 - TDP (Transdimensional Police) not getting involved in Aristo's attack on BlacJac's HQ. Not helping the attack, but not trying to stop it either. Paid off? Outgunned? Not their job? They are on crowd control? What does that mean? Mannachs has gotten free enough of the Manx Cat to cast a noticeable silhouette against the sky. Either Roscoe can sense magic like GrimJack, or the outline is visible to non-sensitives.

Page 21 - GrimJack only revealing as much as he has to. Roscoe knows GrimJack well enough to read between the lines. GrimJack, in his own words, tries to make amends for his mistakes, but won't beg for forgiveness. GrimJack is responsible for Roscoe missing an eye, but he's tired of hearing Roscoe gripe about it. Roscoe willing to get an officer to land so GrimJack can "steal" his hoverbike. The TDP have hoverbikes.

Page 22 - Roscoe downplays GrimJack thanking him. GrimJack believes in luck. Average TDp hoverbike officer wears a gas-mask looking contraption. For the smoke? Because of difficulties breathing while riding the hoverbike? Just because?

Getting To Know GrimJack - Manx Cat #4

Well, you know the drill by now. This issue might be kind of tricky, since GrimJack's astral form is hitching a ride inside another person for the entirety of the issue.

Page 1 - GrimJack's (aka John Gaunt) astral form has moved outside his body before, back in Pdwyr, a place he mentioned in Manx Cat #2. While there, he had a mentor named Maethe. The section of Cynosure we see looks old, medieval. GrimJack's seeking out St. John of Knives, an outlaw saint/demon killer from a millennium ago.

Page 2 - We see St. John, fighting on a rooftop. I stick by my description of him from last week's reviews: Ragman with swords. Fighting vaguely reptilian things.

Page 3 - Gaunt thinks St. John saw his astral form. If he's right, does St. John have extrasensory perception, like GrimJack seems to? GrimJack implies St. John was fighting demons, so they were loose in Cynosure in the more distant past.

Page 4 - Souls can apparently hitch rides in other people's bodies, in addition to simply floating free of their own. At least in this case, that causes a sharing of memory between the 2 parties.

Page 5 - The things GrimJack described as demons call St. John a 'goblyn'. So maybe they aren't supernatural? Also, despite everyone we've seen so far using pointy weapons, guns do work.

Page 6 - St. Dryden, the one with the gun is someone St. John knows, and works with at killing these alleged demons. St. John knows 'the way of violence'.

Page 7 - However allied St. John and St. Dryden may be, John doesn't feel inclined to mention there's another soul inside him besides his own. Why?

Page 8 - St. John not as young as he once was, but who is? The city has a 'Lord Protector'. Demon blood smells pungent.

Page 9 - St. John actually Priest Fra Benjamin Marsh. St. Dryden is Fra Hugh Pentacost, another, younger priest. The head priest of the Sleepless Monks from last issue was 'Fra Jess'. Same religion? Marsh and Hugh live at the X Street Mission. Marsh is attracted to Hugh, but Hugh doesn't know it, and Marsh won't mention it, as he feels the age gap is too great. Marsh was a warrior who sought peace as a priest, but it didn't take. GrimJack says he can relate. So did he have a stint as a priest, or similar peace-minded person?

Page 10 - Butterfly arrives. Hugh dismayed to see it, Marsh grimly resigned. Butterfly a message from Maethe. To GrimJack, Maethe is dead. Not surprising, since Gaunt knew him Pdwyr, and he described that place as 'doomed' in #2. Since Grimjack says he also knows the land, are they now in Pdwyr? If so, it has green grass and pink pterosaurs-type things.

Page 11 - Maethe says reincarnation is common, but it doesn't always move linearly(?) He remembers all his lives, but warns that could drive you mad. Hugh's is not impressed. Chaotic Gods get a mention. The sky was pink, kind of frothy on page 10, not it's gray, like night fell.

Page 12 - Maethe reiterates some of what Fra Jess said last issue. The Chaotic Gods exist outside existence, and they want in to Cynosure. Since all of the multiverse meets there eventually, the Chaotic Gods could get anywhere from there. They plan to use Mannachs to open the way. Mannachs is cruel towards humans, and not trustworthy with its own kind.

Page 13 - Maethe taught Hugh and Marsh how to fight demons, but why? Hugh not happy that they do the fighting, while Maethe does the planning.

Page 14 - Lord Protector lives in the Manson Mansion, next to the Iron Cathedral. Iron Cathedral is headquarters for the UCCC - United Covenant Church of Cynosure. All churches fall under its rule and protection, even if the worship demons. Iron Cathedral is where the center of the Pit will be someday. Hugh doesn't like wizards, tends to sulk. Marsh doesn't mind, GrimJack does.

Page 15 - To reach the Lord Protector, one must get past the Prefect Trifecta. Three heads, named Wynn, Plaise, Shaw (oh, the puns!), set in a door. Each head looks slightly reconstructed, though moving from left to right, each head is more artificial (metallic) than the one before. Prefect Plaise is concerned with punctuality. Marsh can be a bit of a smart mouth. Plaise says it's a sin to keep the Lord Protector waiting. Is he serious, or just melodramatic?

Page 16 - Lord Protector's name is Damian Kristos. Wears partial mask, has sword, staff, jester shoes. Or he needs to get his toes straightened out. He keeps churches fighting with each other to keep himself strong. Gaunt doesn't approve of that. Kristos not concerned with Marsh's complaints about demons near their mission. Actually makes a fair point that one sentient's god is another sentient's demon. Which would actually make Marsh and Hugh religiously intolerant, what with their killing of what they term "demons". Kristos probably only saying that because the "demon" worshippers pay him lots.

Page 17 - X Street Mission is poor, pays with information. Kristos wants to catch St. John of Knives. Kristos also not a fan of pants, has about as much back door coverage in his outfit as Psylocke does in hers, so something for the interested ladies and gents. There's a place called 'Extreme Junction'.

Page 18 - Kristos wants St. John gone badly enough to summon battle cherubs, or as Marsh describes them, 'imps from Hell'. They're little pink things, with gold wings, red boots, diapers/underpants, and oh yes, guns. Marsh is not pleased by this development.

Page 19 - Lot more saints than just John and Dryden, all garbed and armed roughly the same. They describe themselves as the 'Church of Ephemeral Salvation'. Why Emphemeral? Because their battle never seems to end? Because they save by killing demons, and so they're saved for the brief instant between death and a return to Hell?

Page 20 - The other saints don't know Marsh and Hugh are John and Dryden, consider the two priests informers and turncoats.

Page 21 - In Cynosure, dimensions meet and co-exist, adjacent to each other. The Extreme Junction is where they blend. It looks like a Stargate with a huge fog machine set somewhere nearby. Dryden would rather die than wind up in a state of living death.

Page 22 - St. John can't promise he could kill Dryden to spare him that. Gaunt can be quite cruel.

Page 23 - Apparently certain powers come with being Lord Protector. Kristos can fly, and he may have summoned the Battle Cherubs, or they may just hang out at his house. Are those some of the powers? Mannachs has Night Terrorists, the living dead lining the street leading to Extreme Junction. They're asleep, but still up and moving, and whatever they see in their sleep makes them want to kill everyone.

Page 24 - Lord Protector unwilling to work with St. John against Night Terrorists. He's a better swordsman than St. John.

Page 25 - So being punched into the Extreme Junction is not immediately fatal. Might drive you insane. And it's where Mannachs is hanging out. Oh, and Mannachs is a giant, female, partially mummified cat-person. She says she's seen St. John coming and going, which I'm thinking is a reference to GrimJack moving through time and hitching a ride. She does describe them as 'my new playthings'. That's plural, so she clearly thinks she has more than one.

That's it for this issue. Lot of new things to learn, though it'll be interesting to see how much of it applies in GrimJack's time.

Getting To Know GrimJack - Manx Cat #3

Yes, it's that time again. With another issue of Manx Cat in my hands, I'm passing the time, seeing what we can learn about Grimjack (John Gaunt) and his world from these issues, since, in theory, they're barely scratching the considerable backstory that already exists.

Page 1 - We've already seen that Gaunt likes to be prepared, as he carries swords, guns, smoke grenades, and grappling hooks. Apparently he's not the only one, because Darlin's Lil keeps a sword by her bed. She also may have some non-human side, because her eyes are yellow, her teeth are longer and pointy, and she's not doing much but hissing.

Page 2 - The shadows with faces are all around Lil, and Gaunt wonders whether she's possessedm which suggests he's encountered that before. He also says someone in the grip of night terrors can kill, suggesting he has experience with that, too. Two callbacks to issue 2. First, Gaunt says he doesn't want to kill her if he can avoid it, much the same way he didn't bother to kill all the repo men when they crossed paths. Two, his left eye has done that thing where it goes totally black except for the pupil, which is blue (see my comments on Page 13 from last month's issue). The right eye still looks normal. Perhaps it's something Gaunt does when he's being serious?

Page 3 - Gaunt's not willing to die to protect the Cat, seeing as he used it to block a sword. He also looks winded after he does it, which might be referencing BlacJac's frequent comments about how Gaunt's getting old.

Page 4 - It appears using the Cat was part of a plan, since Gaunt's unsurprised by what happens to Lil. He's slightly more surprised that the Cat heals itself. Lil's smart enough to know when something's bad news, since she's now OK with Gaunt taking the Cat. Once again Gaunt senses things, this time about either the Cat, or the whole situation in general, but his instinct is to not get involved.

Page 5 - Gaunt thinks the Cat's more than just some rare collectible. But when he starts wondering why he shouldn't just keep it, he calls the Cat a 'nasty lil' bastard'. So perhaps Gaunt's not much of a hobbyist, or he has enough experience with "artifacts" to know when they're messing with him?

Page 6 - Gaunt has not changed his mind about wanting the Gatorlizard gone. He and Gordon don't have a cordial relationship. Gaunt won't answer Gordon's questions, and Gordon didn't get rid of the Gatorlizard.

Page 7 - It's Jean Loire, the Tourbot user from last time. Gaunt can be friendly enough to offer potential clients a drink. A drink of what, I'm not sure. Something strong, since Jean declines, stating that hard drinks give her vapors. Hard to tell whether Gaunt disapproves of blackmailing or not.

Page 8 - OK, the Cat is making Bob the Gatorlizard dream. It seems Gaunt doesn't like blackmailers, because he rejects Jean's offer. Not interested in Jean's other offer either. And Jean's a shapeshifter, so add that to the list of things you find in Cynosure (along with clones, talking animals, and robots).

Page 9 - Now the Cat's making Gordon see his deceased wife, Jo Chaney, mentioned on Page 3 last issue. Gaunt's still not interested in Jean, actually creeped out. OK, Munden's Bar seems to serve a wide array of drinks. Jean was drinking something, possibly wine, but not strong, considering the earlier comment, out of a reasonably nice glass. Gaunt's drinking something with a first word that ends in "ld", and a second word that ends in "iss", straight from the bottle. Gaunt doesn't think it was bright of Jean to pull a gun on him.

Page 10 - GrimJack deals with that threat in two panels. Again, opts not to kill the threat. Curious, considering he knows Jean can alter her (his?) appearance, which would make Jean harder to guard against.

Page 11 - Gaunt feeling itchy = the Cat acting up. Gaunt won't say where he plans to hide the Cat now, but both Gordon and Bob look rather depressed that he's taking it. Odd, considering Darlin' Lil seemed pleased to be rid of it. It hadn't started controlling them yet, though. And Bob's gonna follow Gaunt. Less afraid of him? Less trusting of his judgment? Concerned for him? Needs what the Cat's offering that much worse than Gordon?

Page 12 - There are places deeper in the Pit (which Gaunt mentioned is where he grew up last issue), than Munden's. OK, Gaunt's definitely aware of what the Cat's doing to people. Whether that's simple powers of observation, or some deeper sense is still uncertain. Gaunt's pupil has the same triangle slice of obsidian in it the Cat's do, and then demons attack.

Page 13 - OK, last issue mentioned Demon Wars, and based on GrimJack's comments as he starts immediately beheading them, demon was not a metaphor for something. The war was 20 years ago, the demons were driven out, and the "gates" were closed.

Page 14 - OK, the Cat can control others' actions, make people dream of happy things, and make them see their worst nightmares. Did it give Gaunt's nightmares solid form, or was he just hallucinating? Gaunt promises to find a way to hurt the Cat if it doesn't stay out of his head. Bob not frightened off by Gaunt swinging his sword wildly for awhile.

Page 15 - In Cynosure, people can use mechanical insects they control remotely to gather information. Gatorlizards eat insects.

Page 16 - Is the bug controlled mentally? It's being eaten seems to hurt Jean. Gatorlizards don't like the taste of mechanical insects. Unlike in issue 2, Gaunt is unaware that he's being followed. When in doubt, he turns to BlacJacMac to watch it. Gives him a little more explanation than he did Gordon. More concerned about BlacJac?

Page 17 - BlacJac's initially unimpressed, keeps cracking jokes about Gaunt getting old, but when gaunt remains serious, BlacJac sobers up a bit. Still, he doesn't sense anything odd about the cat, so he may not have the same senses Jack does. Or he's too tired, since he's in a bathrobe, and may have been woken up by Gaunt. It's been true throughout this issue, but I'll mention it here. There must be a lot of grates and vents in the street, because there seems to be steam rising up from the ground no matter where Gaunt goes.

Page 18 - Gaunt's gone looking for Goethe (the middleman who hired to Gaunt to retrieve the Cat in the first place), and knows where to find him when he's not at work. Cynosure has bars for sentient humanoid animal types to get together and get their freak on. Gaunt says it's not his taste, but he doesn't judge. No clues as to what his 'private perv' is.

Page 19 - I think everything that needs be said I already mentioned for the previous page, so let's move on.

Page 20 - Gaunt prefers rotgut to absinthe. Gaunt is pretty good at talking while keeping a cigarette in his mouth. Doesn't mince words when he wants to talk.

Page 21 - Goethe is part owner of the place they're in, and Gaunt doesn't care. Gaunt knows he wasn't given all the facts about the Cat, and Goethe pretty much confirms it. When Gaunt says others have shown up bidding for it, Goethe's first guess is Jean Loire.

Page 22 - I'm not sure how to interpret this page. Gaunt says he knows it has a connection with the Chaotic Gods (which is what Goddess warned him of last issue), and knows that makes it dangerous. Yet he's willing to take the risk of what could happen if it awakens to meet the ones he's working for. So is he just that unconcerned with what the Cat can do, or is it because he's concerned, that he wants to make certain he's giving it to the right people? At any rate, they're off to see the Sleepless Monks. The last panel shows what appears to be an industrial area at either sunset or dawn.

Page 23 - Not entirely sure what the industrial area was about, as we shift to night (with five worlds visible in the sky) in a area full of building with tall, narrow towers. The largest building, dead center of the page, looks to be carved directly from some existing rock formation, or maybe a ridiculously large tree. Gaunt has never heard of Sleepless Monks. There are anti-grav vehicles, because Goethe has a 'ancient' one. Is that because it's old technology mostly lost in the present, or is Goethe just cheap? In Cynosure, there is such a thing as a Kucinich Ring, which makes things appear inconsequential, rather than invisible. This impresses Gaunt. Grimjack can be a smart ass. When told what he must do out of respect for the Monks' beliefs (cover hair and mouth), he responds 'What respect?' But after Goethe points out that this is the Monks turf, and Gaunt doesn't know what he deals with, Gaunt responds 'Fair enough', and follows instructions.

Page 24 - Leader of the Sleepless Monks is Fra Jess. I think its design is based on the Caterpillar from Alive in Wonderland. Fra Jess sits on a giant mushroom (toadstool?), wears robes, has hands, but also what appear to be multiple little legs.

Page 25 - OK, another mention of a multiverse, this time with the additional comment that the Cat being on the loose moves said multiverse closer to chaos. Gaunt doesn't like it when people discuss him like he isn't there, and he is a rude man. The Monks are the Cat's Keepers, not it's owners, as Gaunt figured.

Page 26 - Fra Jess has a hover toadstool. Cool. Manx Cat is a doorway to the Chaotic Gods. Dangerous to sentients and to the fabric of reality. Well, yeah, if it endangers the fabric of reality, I imagine it's dangerous to sentient beings. Hmm, when Fra Jess says to summon all brethren to the Great Hall, Gaunt's first instinct is they're going to attack him. Says something about his life, that he assumes people will resolve their issues with him through violence.

Page 27 - The statuette called the Manx Cat is the result of the entity being confined in a single time and place. The reason the monks are supposed to be sleepless is that the Cat can escape through their dreams, so they can't sleep. Except some do. So if you were wondering who took the Cat from the Monks originally, the answer is "the Manx Cat itself". Gaunt's not buying that, so some things stretch his limits of believability.

Page 28 - There is a Chant of Transit, which can send one's essence through time. Songs have power, and Gaunt can sense that. He may also be able to sense whether there's the power to harm in the song, but if so, he hasn't honed that sense as much. Or perhaps he's just paranoid.

That's it for this month. Come back next month when the Essence of GrimJack enters the past and finds St. John of Knives!