Scout: War Shaman #13



Beau La Duke vs Ninjas!

That's like John Wayne battling Sho Kosugi!

Creative Team: Beau Smith-writer, Tim Truman-co-writer and finishes, Todd Fox-layouts, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam Parsons-colors, cat yronwode-editor
Not only isn't Truman the main writer, he also isn't doing the initial drawing. I suspect this is related to his workload, from other projects, as I think, he was working on volume 1 of Wilderness and/or he was definitely working on Hawkworld, which would come out in June 1989 (this is April '89). Truman was doing story and pencils on Hawkworld, plus painted covers, while doing story and layouts on War Shaman.

Also from Eclipse: Appleseed Bk II #3, Cyber 7 #2, Dirty Pair #4, Dr Watchstop HC, James Bond: Permission to Die #1, Total Eclipse #5, Weasel patrol #1, Zot #26. Eclipse continues to decline in quantity, on average, with Scout and the manga titles being the only really regular books, though Zot was keeping a relatively consistent bimonthly schedule, at this point. Dr Watchstop was the hardcover edition of the previous trade release, collecting the back-up stories from Fusion. Weasel Patrol was a one-shot spin-off of Fusion, starring the popular animal characters from the book. These guys were both cute and entertaining and Fusion was a pretty decent indie comic. Probably could have been a pretty good animation property, if they had had an agent, like Eastman & Laird. By the 90s, everyone was getting a cartoon, even Xenozoic Tales (aka Cadillacs & Dinosaurs)! Total Eclipse was waaaaay late, summing up both that series and Eclipse's financial state (nearly a full calendar year to publish 5 issues, intended to be monthly). I sometimes wonder if anyone besides me was there, at the end. James Bond was the highly anticipated and marketed James Bond mini-series from fan and fan-favorite writer/artist Mike Grell, who had done several homages in Jon Sable. now, he got to tackle the real thing, mixing in elements of both Fleming and the film series, plus a few touches from the then-current John Gardner series of novels (like Bond's ASP 9mm pistol). Sadly, Eclipse's financial issues derailed this series, too, causing massive delays between issues. That led to an end of the deal with Acme, who took the Bond license to dark Horse, after Eclipse only published the 3 issues of this series and a one-shot adaptaion of License to Kill, from grell and Tom Yeates.

Synopsis: When we last left Beau La Duke, his squad had been ambushed by ninjas, along the US Canada border and he was on foot, trying to get across the border. we pick up the action, as he meditates on new vs old snow...



Who says Beau isn't a deep thinker?

Footprints point to a grove of pine trees and Beau is wary, since they are in front. However, the ninja is above, as he drops out of a tree. Beau teaches him a few dances and then adds some buckshot, for his friend...



You know, Kurt Russell would be perfect for a Beau LaDuke movie. Just saying.

It's ninjas vs cowboy for a few pages and Beau gets POed when one of them slashes his face with his Lee Press-On Claws Official Wolverine Home Kit. Turns out that Sho Kosugi is more of a Mie Hama (a lady). Beau just shrugs her off when he runs into Black Jacques Shellacque, a Canadian killer...





Beau takes the Canuck down rather easily, then turns his attention back to the Ninjette, who has amscrayed. Beau finds a Chevy pickup nearby and heads off in it, when Ninjette returns and attacks. She talks for a bit, then backflips off the hood of the truck before Beau can shoot her and disappears again. She was part of the group that ambushed Beau's squad. Beau goes hunting and ends up snared by none other than RW Hardin, tremayne Wayne, Ninjette, and some other goon (big feller).



The big fella turns out to be Boomer, the brother of Jacques (he actually was named Jacques, even before I tossed out the joke). Hardin leaves Beau to the fun of the stooges and they argue who gets to kill him. Tremayne cuts him down and shoots the chains of his legs, then tells Boomer he gets first crack, for Jacques. Boomer goes to stomp him (oh, he's Archie Gouldie!)...


(Archie Gouldie, aka The Stomper, aka The Mongolian Stomper)

...but Beau blocks him and kicks him in the face. Ninjette attacks and Beau blocks her sword stroke with a length of chain and an elbow to the back of the head. He then breaks her katana across his knee (uh, no....). tremayne eggs him to attack and Beau throws him off balance by hurling the broken tip of the katana at him, then tackling him when he jumps aside to avoid it. Ninjette grabs Beau's leg, to interfere. Beau and Tremayne go tumbling down the mountainside and end up by Hardin's factory, below. He grabs a loose MP5K submachine gun and RW Hardin tries to attack with what looks like a combine harvester, repurposed as a tank...



Beau lets fly with the weapon and kills the driver, then disables the tank with the truck body. Hardin, in the gun tub, fires Tremayne, who goes Johnny Paycheck on his hinder...



...but it is broken up by Hardin's men. That is, until Beau sprays a magazine into the crowd. Tremayne and the Ninjas (sounds like a 60s surf guitar band) help out and take Hardin prisoner, destroy his factory (for money owed) and leave him tied up, hanging upside down from the tank's gun. Beau advertises his upcoming mini (Smith, that is) and we wrap up the issue...



The letters page is handled by Beau, who reminds us of the Scout display contest and shows us the winners



Thoughts: Fun issue that acts as a bit of a palate cleanser, after the Redwire stuff and the attack on the train, last issue. Not a whole lot of plot, but plenty of over-the-top mayhem for action fans. Of course, it is all from Beau's point of view, so the fight might have been a little tougher than he lets on.

Todd Fox was Beau's find, at the Chicago ComiCon (the name of it before Wizard World sucked all the life out of it). he was actually a radio DJ and sound man at an Evansville, IN tv station, who dabbled in art; and, who, according to Beau, was the spitting image of Airboy. Beau remarks to the ladies out there (in a 1980s gun-toting adventure comic? Not many!) that he is 6 ft, blonde and single.

The fight is nicely staged and Truman makes it look like his stuff. I, personally, love the combine-turned-tank. My grandfather was a farmer (both were, at one point, but my paternal grandfather spent his whole life as one) and my uncle farmed nearby (and worked for GTE Telephone) and some of my best childhood memories are of having the run of the farm, playing with my cousins (my cousin Steve and I are only two weeks apart, in age), using the outbuildings and equipment to stage elaborate adventure fantasies (usually involving large quantities of toy guns). My uncle had a big combine (either an International harvester or an Allis Chalmers, I think) and that became our super vehicle, when it wasn't in use (if it was, an old derelict tractor would stand in for it). So, imagine my delight at seeing a great big gun turret mounted on a combine base? Sheer heaven!

Beau is always fun (well, the back-up story in swords of Texas wasn't that great; but, neither was the lead feature), as it is a big ol' John Wayne gonzo mess of violence and humor. Like I say, Kurt Russel, playing it like Jack Burton, in Big Trouble in Little China (with a bit more twang) would be just perfect (maybe Dennis Quaid, if he felt like having fun).

The female ninja isn't given a name, hence the Ninjette name. I concocted a mercenary character for a potential YA adventure series, called Ninjacques, who would be a French ninja chef. One of these days.....

I get the feeling, based on the dialogue at the end, that Beau anticipated using Tremayne Wayne in another feature, as he mentions a rebellion, in Australia (I assume by the hat that Tremayne is from Oz). The character (along with RW Hardin) was credited to Beau and Todd Fox, in last issues credits, so it was someone they concocted. Seems like they intended more than what we see here. To my knowledge, it never came about. Tim was involved in another series, Newstralia, with Stephen Sullivan, which was published at Innovation and featured a rebellion in Australia. That book was conceived by Tim, as part of an assignment at the Kubert School. He met Sullivan at TSR (Truman illustrated game books, while sullivan wrote them) and they worked together to flesh it out. It was pitched to first Comics, when Tim started working on Starslayer, but First, who liked the concept, already had Mars going and didn't want to overload the line with sci-fi titles. Their careers took them in separate directions, though Sullivan shopped Newstralia around again, after finishing on Now's Racer X. He hooked up with Kevin Vanhook and they sold it to Dave Campiti and Innovation. It lasted 5 issues, and prominently used Truman's name to help sell it.

So, now, we turn to the finale of this book, as we have 3 more issues, which will bring the battle of Scout, Rosa and Redwire to a head. Meanwhile, Beau tells us that Beau LaDuke will be featured in back up stories, over those 3 issues.

Almost forgot, at the end, Beau LaDuke is sporting a Black terror Skull and crossbones t-shirt. Beau Smith teamed up with Chuck Dixon and rookie artist Dan Brereton to publish a 3-issue alternate history/crime fiction/superhero/vigilante series, based on the original Nedor Black terror character, who was in the public domain. The world features Al Capone as the power behind a corrupt government and the terror as an undercover agent, trying to bring him down. His cover is as an enforcer for a mob family, while the masked persona allows him to attack Capone's mobs. Brereton gave it that nice pulp look. It was published in the Prestige Format (aka Dark Knight Format), with Brereton's signature painted art. That book led to bigger things for the artist, with Psycho, at DC following, then his own Nocturnals, at Malibu's Bravura imprint. Beau was also Eclipse's sales director and he continued in that capacity until going to work for Todd McFarlane, at Image. he was instrumental in setting up Todd's bid for eclipse's assets, in the wake of their bankruptcy. The court accepted the offer (despite greater combined offers for various properties from their line) and the rest is history, not that it amounted to much. Mcfarlane's real aim was to acquire Miracleman; but, in the end, it was ruled that Eclipse never owned a stake in it as Dez Skinn didn't actually own any rights. If memory serves, McFarlane only used the Heap and maybe Black Terror (there was something related to him, as I recall). He didn't even own the Heap, since that was in the public domain before Eclipse picked up the characters.

Oh, the Archie Gouldie photo. Archie Gouldie was a big, tough Canadian, from Alberta, who played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in the CFL. After or while playing football, he went to Stu hart's place to become a wrestler, training in the infamous "dungeon," the Hart's basement gym. He became one of Stampede Wrestling's (Stu harts promotion, in Calgary, with matches at the Calgary Stampede) most notorious villains, known to tear up the ring in wild brawls with the babyfaces, including Stu (while he was still an active wrestler) and his sons, Bruce, Keith and Bret. There, he was Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie and one of his signatures was stomping his big feet down on an opponent. He wrestled beyond Canada, working for the Kansas City promotion under his own name, then eventually shaving his balding head and becoming the Stomper, a supposed Mongolian monster who terrorized rings in the southern territories (Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama) as well as San Francisco and Puerto Rico. After partially retiring from the ring, he went to work as a sheriff's deputy, in Knox County, TN. To stay in shape, he often cycled the mountain roads to and from work and also worked part time for Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling, in the mid-90s. He used to cycle to the tapings and matches, to the amazement of the younger talent. Gouldie was pure iron, covered by muscle and skin, one of the legit tough guys in the business. As Archie Gouldie, he cut terrifying promos that even scared the Hart children, fearing the madman, then later meeting him at the house, for dinner, while he was mute, as the Mongolian stomper, in the US. Mute or growling, he would have made a great addition to Scout.

Scout: War Shaman #14



Scout saying hello to the neighbors!

Creative Team: Tim Truman-story & pencils, Ricardo Villagran-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam Parsons-colors, cat yronwode-editor
Beau La Duke: beau Smith-writer, Todd Fox-pencils, Villagran, Harkins, Parsons same jobs. Truman edits.

Also from Eclipse: Air Fighters Classics #6, Appleseed Bk II #4, Cyber 7 #3, Fusion #15, Stormwatcher #2, Tales of the Beanworld #13, Tapping the Vein #2. Air Fighters Classic is the final issue of b&w reprints of Hillman material, given that Eclipse was going to pull the plug on the series with issue #50. Some manga, some Barker and a couple of old favorites and not much else from Eclipse. Their releases would be far sparser from past days.

Synopsis: Redwire and Capt. Atuma Yuma (the river pirate, from issue 3 & 4) are testing out some new firearms, by making a Native American run like a rabbit.



They are pelased with the weapons and Redwire wants more and hires Yuma to get them. From a distance, Scout, Rosa and Beau La Duke watch. Santana has had enough and calls for a clip of .303 ammo for his Enfield. Rosa says to forget it, but the discussion is rather loudly interrupted by the rev. Sand Dog Yuma, an old acquaintance of Beau (from his back-up tale, in Swords of Texas) and he alerts them to another issue, on another ridge. Scout trains a telescope on it and sees a mobile missile battery and soldiers. Sand Dog says the trops wiped out most of the Hopi village and are trying to entice the survivors out to be slaughtered. however, he knows where they can get some weapons and ammunition. beau goes to purchase the weapons while the rest go to Walker's hidden caves. Scout is reunited with Victor and Tahzey and Victor remarks that he could feel his father coming home. Rev Yuma and Father Robillard have a discussion in comparative religion, along the lines of calling each other heathen unbelievers and servants of Satan.

In the night Rosa comes to Scout to relive old times (aka the horizontal mambo), while Victor is off testing his abilities by levitating large rocks, with telekinesis. Robillard watches, in secret (though probably not to Victor). Later, after darkness, a surprise visits the ridge with the soldiers and Hopi captives....



They lure out the soldiers and steer them into an ambush, then hit their weapons stash. Scout notices an owl flying above and halts. It is a bad omen. They search the stores, but see no sign of Redwire, until he surprises them...



...with Tahzey and Victor as his prisoners.

The back-up tale follows Beau as he goes to purchase the arms.

Beau walks into a bar........................

not making a joke, just Beau walks into a bar, to find McTaggert, the man with the guns. They discuss Beau's bar tab and Beau offers cash, in advance. The walls have ears...



The ears have matching feet and they go of to alert Captain Atuma Yuma, who lays an ambush, to steal the weapons from Beau. However, Beau gets a little help...



Yuma skedaddles and McTaggert introduces Rita Rodricho, a bounty hunter, after Yuma. Beau tries to borrow her bike and she declines, in a slightly testicular impacting manner. When he recovers, Beau goes after. Rita is down by the dock, sighting in on Yuma, when she is rustled by some of Yuma's pirates. She's hauled before him and about to be in real trouble, when Beau returns the favor....



Thoughts: Lots of twists and turns and nastiness, as we build to the climax of this volume. Redwire has decimated the Hopi villages and is looking to hit Walker, if he can entice him out. He needs guns and so does Santana. beau goes for the guns and Rosa and Scout go for Redwire. Redwire has a surprise and accumulates more children of his enemies (he has Laura, already). Meanwhile, Beau faces Atuma Yuma, river pirate, while his brother the Rev sand Dog Yuma aids Rosa and Scout. Old home week for a lot of characters here. something big is about to happen.

Not much character development as much as continuation. Victor's ability is growing; is that good or bad? Rosa turns to Scout for more than aid; is that a mistake on his part? Lots of intriguing things to get you back, next issue.

The Beau La Duke story is fun, if a bit brief and a better representation of the character than the Swords of Texas storyline. He'll be back for more next issue, then issue 16 is the end, with everyone. You can sense that this is going to be a major event in the Scout series, even more than the end of the first series. Truman is back on art, with Villagran inking, likely due to his other commitments. They are a good match and Todd fox and Ricardo work well on Beau's story. 4Winds has been pretty consistent with the quality of illustration in their books, with similar artistic sensibilities, with John K Snyder III being the biggest outlier.

Scout: War Shaman #16



Cover kind of gives it away....

Creative Team: Tim Truman-story & pencils, Ricardo Villagran-inks, Tim Harkins-letters, Sam & Sal Parsons-colors, cat yronwode-editor.
Listed as "An Apache Production, for Eclipse Comics" Not sure if that meant a new studio name, or what, as Wilderness carried the 4Winds logo, though Tecumseh did not.

"The Living Years"-Beau Smith-writer, Todd Fox-pencils, Ricardo, Tim H and Sam do their thing, Tim T edits.

Also from Eclipse: Due, at least in part, to Eclipse's financial problems, this issue came out 6 months after the previous one. So, this is what was published in the interim:

JULY
Cyber 7 #5
Dirty Pair II #2
Fusion #16
Stormwatcher #3

August
Appleseed Bk III, #1
Black Terror #1
Cyber 7 #6
Dirty Pair II #3
Reid Fleming #4 (published sporadically, based on creator producing material; 8 months since previous issue)
Tales of the Beanworld #14 (published roughly quarterly, through 1991)

September
Appleseed Bk III #2
Cyber 7 #7
James Bond, Permission to Die #2 (5 months after the 1st issue, despite being in-house, final issue out 13 months later, despite being in-house)
Stormwatcher #4 (last issue)
Zot #28 (frequency varied, but, more or less bi-monthly, at this stage)

October
Airboy #50 (6 months after previous issue, despite being in-house before #49)
Appleseed Bk III #3
Appleseed: The Promethian Challenge TPB (Book I)
Black Terror #2 (3rd and final issue came out 5 months later))
Cyber 7 Bk II #1
Dirty Pair II #4
Dominion #1
Fusion #17 (Last issue)

November
Appleseed Bk III #4
Appleseed: The Promethian Challenge HC
Cyber 7 Bk II #2
Dirty Pair II #5
Dominion #2
Tales of the Beanworld #15

December
Appleseed Bk III #5
Cyber 7 Bk II #3
Dominion #3
Scout: War Shaman #16 (last issue)
Zot #29

So, only the manga reprints are hitting monthly schedules (on the whole), while Fusion gets shut down, as did Stormwatcher. James bond was in on time, per Mike Grell; but, Eclipse didn't have the cash to publish it, leading to Acme Press taking the license to Dark Horse. Tales of the Beanworld and Zot were critical darlings, with loyal readers, but neither Larry Marder nor Scott McCloud were what you would call "fast." Dominion was a new manga reprint, also from Masamune Shirow (Appleseed, Ghost in the Machine). The manga material was all coming from Toren Smith's Studio Proteus. Studio Proteus was the chief manga translation packager for all comics, at the time, working with Eclipse, Viz (continuing after Viz severed their relationship with Eclipse), Innovation and Dark Horse. Eclipse actually passed on Outlanders, which Studio Proteus then offered to Dark Horse and it became a big hit. After Eclipse was hit with a lawsuit by Studio Proteus, the group gained all translation rights to the material and took it to Dark Horse, for reprinting (some of it).

Synopsis: Rosa and her men have their weapons aimed at a defenseless Scout, Tahzey, Victor and Sand Dog Yuma.



Atuma Yuma turns up and interrupts things and is attacked by his brother. Santana understands what Sand Dog is doing and tells Tahzey to get ready. he then pulls the pins on a pair of grenades and tells Tahzey and Victor to run. Rosa fires but misses. her men recover and she sends them after Santana. She tells the men to kill Sand Dog, but leave Atuma alive, as he is useful. Sand Dog and Atuma go rolling off a cliff. The men carefully edge forward and find only Atuma, with his throat cut and rifle gone. sand Dog is nowhere to be seen. Rosa then orders Walker to be shot and moves on.

Scout, Victor and Tahzey are hold up in a crevice.....



Victor's link to Walker is gone. sand Dog turns up, wounded but alive and says his brother is dead. Scout goes to treat his wounded leg, when Rosa's men open fire, pinning them down. Scout takes a round. He tells Sand Dog to give him the rifle and to take the boys through the arroyo, before Rosa can bring up a squad to block it. Tahzey starts to argue, but Scout stops him and says his goodbyes...



...SNIFF.......Got somethin' in my eye.........

Rosa begins her attack and Scout sends the boys with Sand Dog. Rosa tells him he is surrounded, but Scout opens things up and tells sand Dog to get moving. Explosives go off and rocks come raining down into the arroyo. Scout loses sight of Sand Dog and Tahzey and calls out to his son; Victor is still by him. Scout fires at every available target; but, it isn't enough. More pop up and fire. Scout shields Victor and is hit again and tells Victor they got him good that time...



Scout finds Victor a hiding place and covers it, telling Victor he will always be with him. Scout waits and they come. he fires and keeps firing, until there is nothing left. There aren't enough bullets and Rosa's team get to him. Rosa sees the body of her one-time friend and lover. She goes down to check the body, as she has to be sure. Scout has one last surprise for her....



We then see Sand Dog, carrying an injured Tahzey out of the arroyo and into the desert. We hear the words from the future, as sand Dog relates the tale and says they never found Victor. We then see Victor climb out of his hiding place, where he finds Rosa's sunglasses and his father's headband. He dons the scarf and we see that another is watching over the next Scout....



...the gahn has returned.


"The Living Years:" Beau La Duke has finally arrived, too late. He performs one last service for his friend, Emanuel Santana, known as Scout. he thinks back on their past, as beau would tell tall tales, then Scout revealed he knew beau was a Rhodes Scholar and had travelled the world. beau was enamored of John Wayne western and lamented the lack of real heroes. Using his family money, he decided to create one and learned and rtained. he developed the Beau La Duke persona, to help hide who he was inside. Scout saw through it. Beau makes a promise to find the boys and says goodbye...



As he leaves, he sees another friend of Scout, watching....



The book ends with a piece from cat, noting that this is the end and Tim is taking a break, to work on other projects. However, she notes two more volumes are planned.....



....Scout: Marauder and Scout: Blue Leader. We still wait, but Scout: Marauder had a kickstart campaign that was successful, to finish it, and we await its release. Son Ben joins Tim on the work.

Thoughts: And so Scout comes to the conclusion that we should have probably expected, but didn't want to contemplate. This was no supernatural or super-normal her; just a man, fighting against a far larger and more powerful enemy. it was always a matter of numbers, just as it was to the Chiricahua and other Apache groups, who fought the US government for their freedom, eventually losing. Tim was faithful to their culture and history and is faithful in the reality and power of his ending. Scout goes out fighting, always using the element of surprise to inflict heavy damage. In this case, he took out his enemy, Rosa. He knew she would want to be sure and he made his own body a boobytrap to reach her. Rosa ignored her training, falling prey to her impetuous nature, where Scout was involved. Standard procedure for checking a dead enemy is to probe the body and then roll it over on top of you to check for boobytraps, underneath. As a midshipman, I spent a week at Camp Pendleton and watched a demonstration of these techniques, by a squad of Marines. had Rosa done as she was trained, she would still be alive to be a threat to Tahzey and Victor. She knew Scout and betrayed him, because she knew he would never be blindly loyal to her plans. Scout knew that she would probably betray him for what she thought was a greater good and that too many innocents had been ground under her heel. Rosa wasn't saving America, she was putting it out of its misery. Scout did the same to her, ending her descent into a living, monstrous hell.

Tahzey survives, with the Rev sand Dog Yuma. we know nothing of what he will do. we see Victor take up the mantle of his father and meet his father's guide, the gahn. We know from the framing devices that victor would become the new enemy of the government, but one with paranormal abilities. We have seen Victor take two lives, but restore one, as well, all with the power of his mind. Will he be destroyer or lifegiver? Was Doody really a prophet and not just a deluded, mentally challenged, tortured young man? Is Victor the hope for a future, after the darkness? the darkness is there and Scout's vision showed him the world was dying, from poisons and hate; but, his vision also showed that his people would survive and flourish again. Victor seems to be the center of that vision.

Beau says tearful goodbyes to his friend, Santana, as he buries his body. We learn that beau is not what he seems, setting the stage for future adventures from Beau La Duke, suggesting he might be a major part of Scout: marauder. Beau is an homage to Beau Smith and the revelations reflect that Smith was more than a crazy John Wayne-loving fan and salesman. he was also a pretty good writer and creative talent, as will be seen in his then-upcoming collaboration with Chuck Dixon & Dan Brereton, on Black Terror, and his own From Parts Unknown. He would go on to work at DC, writing Guy Gardner, and for Todd McFarlane's company and was instrumental in Todd buying up Eclipse's publishing properties, though he did little with it, as he soon found that Miracleman was not up for grabs, his main reason for grabbing them. Beau also worked with IDW, creating Wynonna Earp and Frank Cobb and has worked in the gaming industry, contributed columns and books relating to comics and marketing, and watched a lot of John Wayne movies.

Tim Truman became a pretty hot commodity around this time. he produced book covers for the Wild cards series, edited by George RR martin, featuring a world of super powered individuals and deformed freaks, the end result of an alien genetic weapon. Truman produced covers for the original Bantam run (I want to say he started with Book 6, Dead Man's hand, and then provided covers for reprintings of the earlier volumes, as he wasn't the original cover artist). he did a bunch of work at DC, including Hawkworld and the subsequent regular series, the Jonah Hex collaborations with Joe Lansdale (and the lawsuit brought by the Winter Brothers), The Kents (with John Ostrander), Creature Commandos, and the thoroughly awesome Guns of the Dragon (with Bat Lash, Enemy Ace, Biff Bradley, Chop-Chop, Vandal Savage and Miss Fear). He provided covers and stories for Grateful dead Comix, adapting the songs of the band into visual form. He contributed to the ray Bradbury Chronicles, wrote Star wars, as Dark Horse, handled the Lone Roanger, at Topps, Turok, at Valiant, and Conan, also at Dark Horse.

That brings an end to the 4Winds comics at Eclipse; but, we still have the graphic albums to discuss and will begin with Tim's next project there, Wilderness, a two-volume series about the notorious Simon Girty.

Take it up with my editor; but, give him treats first or he gets cranky and starts yowling at you!



He sleeps 16 hours a day and doesn't pay attention.  I write many of these things after a long day dealing with demanding people, a lack of resources and cowardly and illogical corporate masters.  That's why he's the editor; he's better rested!

And, yeah, I meant Ghost in the Shell.  I'm a huge fan of The Police album and Machine keeps popping in my head when I mean the anime.

Wilderness, Bk 1 & 2



Creative Team: Tim Truman-story & art, Tim Harkins-letters

So, this is going to be a bit different, since this is a biographical work, rather than a comic story. Wilderness tells the story of Simon Girty, a figure on the frontier of the Ohio River Valley, across a span of time the encompasses The French & Indian War, The American Revolution, Pontiac's Rebellion and Lord Dunmore's War. The latter two are the names that whites gave to battles between the native tribes and white settlers. Very little of this material gets taught in schools, as the American Revolution tends to focus on the events that led to the declaration of Independent, the key battles and the Surrender at Yorktown, with little else mentioned. The frontier tends to be glossed through rather quickly, even in my day, when we did out homework by candlelight, carving our essays on stone tablets, and carrying them the 20 miles, uphill, through 30 feet of snow, fighting grizzlies and marauding bandits all along the path. The French & Indian War often gets compressed into George Washington getting into a mess and the British taking Quebec. The frontier fighting gets dumped into talk of Manifest Destiny (in my day) or omitted due to political considerations. Regardless, even the best American History classes can only cover so much ground and the initial frontier expansion tends to get lost in the establishment of the Constitution and the new Federal Government and the War of 1812. Then, we tend to talk about westward expansion in broader terms. even on a local level, the area history tends to be left for field trips or private exploration and study (assuming you can be bothered to turn off your damn cell phones and video games......pull up your pants....get off my lawn....darned ungrateful little hippies!)

So, much of where we get this kind of history is through entertainment and mostly Hollywood. That is where much of the trouble lies, as Hollywood has a pretty piss-poor record on historical accuracy, especially when it comes to early American History and tends to play up the same patriotic legends that get substituted for nuanced study. Tim Truman set out to deliberately contrast these depictions in this work. Simon Grity, when he has been portrayed at all, has been shown as a murderous traitor and villain, who turned on whites and betrayed the Patriot cause. Even benedict Arnold tends to get cut more of a break. Truman sets out to portray the man as legitimate contemporary sources indicated, while filling in the less known period, Girty's youth among the Seneca, by using the historical accounts of other whites who came of age within native tribes, after being taken prisoner, on raids.



You can read Somin Girty's Wikipedia entry here, though it's just the basics and we all know about the reliability of Wikipedia. We will start this by summarizing the life of Simon Girty, then look at how Tim portrays the man and the events of his life.

Simon Girty was born in 1741, near Harrisburg, PA, to Simon Girty Sr and Mary Newton. His father came over from Ireland, in 1730. The parents had 4 children: Simon Jr, Thomas, James and George, with Simon Jr being the second born. The family established a trading post and lived on land near the Susquehana River, but before British authorities had allowed settlement there. The Girtys and others were forced off the land, their homes were burnt down and they were fined 500 pounds by the government. Simon Sr was killed in a duel and Mary later married Simon's half-brother, John Turner. During the French & Indian War, the land they lived on became endangered by frontier skirmishes and the family relocated to Fort Granville, where John Turner joined the local militia. While the bulk of the militia was out on patrol, a force of 55 French and 100 Lenape native warriors attacked the fort and set fire to the stockade, which opened a hole, allowing the enemy to kill several men. The French commander offered quarter, if they surrendered. John Turner, as ranking officer, opened the gates. The French & Lenape plundered the fort and took survivors as prisoners. John Turner was tortured and killed, in front of his family. The family was split up, with Mary and baby John Jr, as well as James Girty were given to a Shawnee party, 10 year-old George Girty was taken by the Lenape and 15 year-old Simon was given to the Seneca (the Mingoes, of the Ohio Seneca). He lived with them in Northwestern PA, on the eastern shores of Lake Erie. Thomas Girty escaped from the Lenape.

Simon earned the respect of the Mingoes when he ran a gauntlet and proved his bravery. He was initiated into the tribe and was mentored by Guyasuta, the chief of the Mingoes and lived with him for 7 years. During this period, the Mingoes were allies of the French and fought against British forces and native allies at the Battle of Fort Duquesne. The war officially ended in 1763, but battles between native tribes and the British continued, in what was known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Mingoes were allied with Pontiac and fought with him at key battles, in 1763. There is no firm record of whether Simon Girty took part in the fighting. The fighting was particularly brutal, with the British using native allies in the fighting, plus the general arrogance of Gen Jeffrey Amherst. After initial gains by Pontiac's confederation, the British sent out expeditions to retake the land. Gen Bradstreet felt he didn't have enough men to subdue the tribes and negotiated a peace with the Seneca. As a byproduct, all captured prisoners were to be returned and Simon Girty returned to white settlements in 1764.

Girty had fully assimilated into the Mingo tribe and their ways and felt out of place among the whites, in Ft Pitt. He proved useful, though, as he was a skilled frontiersman and spoke 11 languages and was used as a scout and translator. During the fighting known as Lord Dunsmore's War, Girty fought with the British militias and regulars, alongside such frontier fighters as George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan. These men also took part on the American Revolution, siding against the British. By 1778, the Frontier was becoming embroiled and the native tribes began to see the colonies as a growing threat and began uniting against them, with British loyalist sympathizers agitating things further. Simon Girty joined others in defecting from the Patriots, joining the native tribes and their British allies. As such, Girty was considered a traitor. His brothers James and George joined him and they were involved in an ambush against Patriots in northern Kentucky and against Daniel Boone at the battle of Blue Licks. However, Girty is noted to have intervened in the treatment of white prisoners and bought many of them their freedom.

Girty also fought alongside the Wyandot in the Northwest rebellion of 1785-1795, including the American defeat at the Battle of the Wabash River, aka St Clair's Defeat. After the end of the fighting, Girty joined other native tribes and Loyalists in moving into Canada and settled in Ontario, where they had been deeded land, by the crown. Girty retired to a farm, near Ft Malden (modern Amhertsburg, Ontario), where arthritis and increasing blindness took their toll on him. His son George was killed during the War of 1812 and Girty died in 1818.

Book 1, "The Borderlands", tells the story of Simon's captivity with the Mingoes and through the American Revolution. Truman begins in 1783, along a mountain ridge, near Pittsburg. A white prisoner is marched along by native, who whistle a signal and out steps a surprise for the prisoner....



...a white man, who tells him to take it easy, that the warriors get jumpy when they hear cannon fire. The prisoner tells him the cannon are in celebration of end of the war. Girty tells his allies that the man lies, though he knows that it changes the climate. He then reflects back on his earlier life and we turn to 1750, at Sherman's Creek, where the elder Simon is driven off his land and his home is burnt down by agents of the Sherriff of Lancaster, for squatting. Simon the Elder is portrayed as a violent drunkard, though he cries out that everything they had was in the house, which was set ablaze. They return to the settlement at Chamber's Mill and Girty sells everything he has to pay the fine. he re-establishes himself as a trader and takes on a partner, John Turner, trading things like muskets, ball and powder, skinning knives, tomahawks and whiskey for animal pelts, which were then sold to furriers and other clothing manufacturers. The native tribes of the area became more and more dependent on the trade, as white settlements grow and encroach their hunting grounds. Simon and his sons were often gone for long trips, collecting furs and trading goods, while John turner watched things at the other end. Truman implies that Turner and Mary began an affair during the trips. Simon Sr is a successful trader, offering diluted whiskey to his customers to get them in a proper frame of mind for bargaining. However, he builds a reputation as a fair trader and is well liked by the natives. With whites it is another story and a duel or fight emerges after insults to an Englishman (possible and officer) and Girty is killed. John Turner marries Mary and they have a son and soon move to the area around sherman's Creek, where Simon Sr had squatted.

Truman gives a quick summary of the beginning of the French & Indian War....



and picks up with the family at Fort Granville, as they are attacked by the French and Lenape. The prisoners are taken to Kittanning, the home of the Lenape and their fate is decided by the families of the slain warriors.



John Turner is tortured and killed and the family split. Simon runs the gauntlet and is badly beaten and injured, but survives and wins respect. His wounds are treated and he becomes a member of Guyasuta's family. In 1764, he is returned to the British, at Ft Pitt....



Girty becomes a hunter and scout for George Morgan, as they hunt and trade along the frontier of Kan-Tu-Kee. Truman uses the words from Morgan's letters to tell the story and uses other contemporary accounts of Girty, in letters and records. Simon's brothers live around Pittsburg and are well respected. Simon befriends a half-breed Scot, named Alexander McKee. Truman relates the events of Pontiac's rebellion and the motivations for the native tribes to side against the American colonies...



Girty becomes embroiled in land squabbles between Pennsylvanians and Virginians, who covet tracts of land in the Ohio Valley, in Shawnee territory. This leads into Lord Dunmore's War, as the actions of colonial militia stir up hatred among the Shawnee and Mino, as a peaceful brother of the chief is murdered by a militia captain. The fighting is brutal, but peace is eventually made, with the whites gaining the rights to settle and hunt in Kan-Tu-Kee.

The rebellion against the British drives out Dunsmore and Pittsburg becomes part of the rebellion, with reprisals against the Virginians who had sided with Lord Dunsmore. Simon is reacquanited with his friend McKee and used as a scout and diplomat, to implore the Seneca to refrain from joining other tribes to aid the British against their colonial enemies. He is nearly killed but makes it back, only to find his promised captaincy given to another and his request for reimbursement of his lost goods and equipment denied. Anger and resentment stews. Girty is a scout for a party sent to Cayuga to intercept store of arms from the British. Instead of warriors, they find women and children. The women are enslaved and the colonel takes a scalp from a boy. Girty is disgusted and loses faith in the Patriots. They attack the Delaware, one of the few tribes that hadn't joined the British. Simon grows wary as he sees the Patriots seeking to kill every red man and wonders how the view one who lived among them. McKee and Matthew Elliot work on him, showing that the colonials act in bad faith. George Morgan is jailed as a Tory sympathizer. Simon moves on, along with McKee and Elliot.

Girty joins the British and their native allies and fights against the Patriot forces in Kentucky. He comes across a former friend, Simon Butler, who has acted as a scout for George Rogers Clark. Girty pleads for his life and it is spared...



Truman continues with the exploits of Girty and the rest in the frontier fighting. Butler heals and Simon confesses to the man that he lives uneasily with the Shawnee, feeling that maybe he made a mistake in siding with them. After a bloody fight with the Patriots, a chief, named Redpole, demands Butler's life in repayment for the lost warriors. Girty pleads his case to the assembled leaders and to McKee and the British liasons, but it proves futile. Girty leads a party of Mingoes into the Ohio wilderness to raid and stir trouble, as well as spy on troop movements. The Delaware are still courting favor with the Patriots and Girty finds an old rivall leading the Patriots. he also finds himself with a price on his head, of $800, with both whites and the Delaware trying to claim it. Things go badly for the tribes and the British, though Simon gains them a victory, but sees the British fail to control their allies. He leaves the British to live among the Wyandott. Fighting continues and soon Girty is at odds with his allies and his enemies.

Book 2, "Bloody Ground"
Trumanpicks up the story in 1817, as Girty is in poor health and dying, looking back. Girty and the Ohio tribes, along with British rangers are waging war, unaware of the British defeat at Yorktown and the cessation of hostilities between the rebels and the British crown, as diplomats take over to negotiate a peace. On the frontier, the fight continues. Girty and his bands hail an outpost, Bryant Station and try to coax them to surrender. they are rbuffed and disappear in the night. relief troops come to the station, then go hunting for the enemy, led by Col Daniel Boone. Boone is wary of the tracks, as they are too easy to follow, yet show signs of men walking in each other's footsteps to hide their numbers. he believes they are being led into an ambush...



Boone's son Israel is killed, as are 70 others. Girty and his men return to their camp and learn that the British have indeed made peace with the Patriots and are withdrawing their soldiers. Girty settles down, though he is recognized as the elader of the ambush by Simon Kenton, aka Simon Butler, who survived. Raids continue and Girty's name is attached to every attack along the Ohio. Simon spent his time drinking, but found love with a woman, Catherine Malott, who had also been a captive of the natives. He had been granted land and still received payment from the british, as an agent. They soon called again upon his services, in 1785. he is sent as an emissary to the Iroquois, led by Chief Joseph Brant, who wounded Girty in a fight over who ad brought a victory. Brant appeals to girty that they need each other and they form a wary alliance. Girty and Brant help unite the tribes in fighting against the Americans, with the British aiding them. The Americans raid Kentucky and kill Moulatha, leader of the Shawnee, despite Daniel Boone telling them he could get them to leave the village peacefully. he was ignored and the Americans went with blood in their eyes. The tribes return to warring along the Ohio, until the Americans strike back, in 1790, leading to their ambush and defeat along the Wabash Creek....



Reprisals come, the fighting continues.



There follow tales of encounters with Girty, through the region. The war goes badly for the natives and the Americans push them further and further back into the Ohio region, towards Ft Detroit. Finally, the American's, led by "Mad" Anthony Wayne, defeats Blue Jacket and the Shawnee and the British turn their backs on their allies and refuse them entry into Ft Detroit.



Girty sees the treachery and abandon's British service, disillusioned...



Girty loses his friends and his world changes. eeventually, the british cede Ft Detroit and the region to the Americans, with the signing of the Jay Treaty. Girty leaves in defiance...



Girty descends into bitterness and alcoholism, exacerbated by arthritis and old wounds. He drives away his wife, who takes their children.

The Shawnee, with the urging of Tecumseh, aid the British in the War of 1812 and take ft detroit. Simon Girty returns to it and enjoys some time in a saloon...



Simon Girty , cared for by his daughter Ann, dies in 1818.

Thoughts: This is an amazing piece of work, both artistically and as a historical record, via the graphic medium. Truman applies everything he learned in his years since the Kubert School and weaves together a compelling narrative of a notorious figure, trying to get at the reality underneath. It is a "warts and all" portrayal of the man and the times, showing that much of what we learn in our history classes is told from one point of view and loses context in the retelling. Truman illustrates the frontier life accurately, from the dress to the equipment and the method of fighting. We do not see the stereotyped war boonets of Hollywood, but actual buckskin leggings and breechcloths, blankets and bedrolls, tomahawks and pistols, powder horns and moccasins. He distinguishes between the natives and frontiersmen and the white settlers, who wish to impose their civilization on this wilderness. It is a segment of history that is mostly forgotten, as contemporary entertainment left behind figures like Daniel Boone. When I was a child, our local station carried reruns of Daniel Boone, with Fess Parker, which, although highly dramatized and inaccurate, did shed light on those frontier days. Disney gave us the Davy Crockett legend, but film and television, alongside the western, gave us those frontier days. Books like Last of the Mohicans and Drums Along the Mohawk gave us a feel for those lands and the fights between the whites and the natives, though from the white point of view. Truman gives a more rounded look at that era, with some still coming out virtuous (Boone), some in between (Girty and George Rogers Clark) and some villainous. He highlights how the story of the American and British war didn't end with the Surrender at Yortown, as fighting continued along the frontier, with the British continuing to agitate the tribes to sow unrest and try to hold off American expansion. As we see in the end, it stiffened American resolve to drive off the natives and take the rich hunting and farmland for themselves and the natives learned that the British cared no more for them than the Americans or the French. They were pawns tot he whites, providing them with the furs and meat they coveted, but standing in the way of the land they wanted for their own.

Truman doesn't sugarcoat things, either. There is virtue and cowardice on both sides, anger and treachery. The natives war on each other, though not to the degree that the Europeans would on the natives. He shows how Girty is hardened with the loss of 3 fathers: his birth father, Simon Sr, his stepfather, John turner, and his native father, Guyasuta. He prefers the old life of the tribes, hunting and fishing, occasionally warring, but is taken away from it. he spends the rest of his life trying to find a way to live that life, but never really gets to settle into it. He is an outsider to both worlds.

Truman delivers the same truth that he had for Scout to Wilderness; but, this time, with a factual person. The second volume is filled with a list of sources he used and he used contemporary words and records where they existed, plus did his research on everything, from clothing to rituals, to politics within the colonies and among the tribes. It's a complex story that expands horizons beyond the traditional narrative of brave pioneers taming the wilderness to build a civilization; the American Myth, while Truman delivers more of the American Truth. Most Americans are oblivious to the various wars against the natives, including under George Washington's presidency, or the politics of the colonies, such as the rivalries between various colonies, especially in regards to unclaimed frontier land. Greed drove many things then, just as it does now. It is fitting that Truman did this work in black and white, as the world within is grey, with shades to many things and few absolutes, and little bright color. The only thing missing would be to colors of the wilderness, the animals, the vast forests of trees. So much of what is now farmland, cities and suburbs was once covered by trees and meadows, with rich soil and teaming with wildlife. In crafting a nation, that wilderness was carved away and what was was lost. The people lived more in tune with that world went with it, both from direct warring, to disease and just a loss of their way of life. Those that survived were changed, until those groups were gone, either in spirit of reality.

I bought the albums as they came out and devoured them, reminded of my early childhood, watching Fess Parker and Ed Ames live their frontier adventures, or Grizzly Adams, Mad Jack and Ben meet various strangers in their wilderness. I was reminded of the early episodes of the mini-series Centennial, with Robert Conrad as a French courier and Richard Chamberlain as a Scottish hunter and trapper. Stories of traders and hunters, explorers and misfits who went off into the wilderness. The reality of those men was rarely contained in the stories, but they stirred the imagination of youth. Truman gives us that, plus the reality and the history, far too often left to the few who study at the local level, give the tours of historical sites that visitors often tune out or write the books that a select audience reads.

Several years later, I gave my copies to a friend's father, who was a frontier re-enactor and had read about the books, in an article in an old magazine, from the early 90s. he had asked me if we could get them, at B&N, but I explained that Eclipse had gone bankrupt and the books were out of print. I did a little searching on line, but they were relatively rare and pricey; so, I gave him my copies, since I had read them, figuring that the work would get reprinted, eventually, given how good it was. The books were eventually reprinted a couple of years later, by Roger Broughton's ACG, along with some of Truman's other work, including his frontier collection Straight Up to See the Sky, in 1999.

If you have any interest in frontier history or just want to see amazing art and skillful storytelling, I highly recommend these.

Yeppers indeed, Wilderness scratches my Wild West itch very well. Next to the history of the West, Frontier times is a very close 2nd in historical reading for me. Truman knocked it out of the ballpark and out yonder deep into them thar woods!

Tecumseh



Creative Team: Tim Truman-adaptation & art, Valerie Jones-editor.
Based on the play by Allan W Eckert

So, this is an adaptation of someone else's work, rather than an original piece by Truman. Allan W Eckert was a writer of natural history books and frontier history, both as fiction and non-fiction. He was an interesting writer, who was born in Buffalo, NY and was raised in Chicago, IL. As a young man, he hitchhiked around the US, studying wildlife and living off the land. He wrote dozens of books for children and adults, specializing in natural history and the history of the Ohio Valley frontier, in the 1700 and early 1800s. He was a writer for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (hosted by Marlin Perkins) and wrote over 200 episodes, winning an Emmy in the process. One of his most noted series was his "Winning of America, which features historical fiction about the westward progress from the early colonies, into the frontier region of the Ohio Valley and Kentucky and Tennessee. The series mixed historical figures, both Europeans and natives, as well as fictional characters, in a narrative of the growth of the nation. His work was noted for being fair to both the European and native perspectives and shedding less than favorable light on some figures in American history, about whom more legend than fact was perpetuated (as we will see here, with William Henry Harrison).

In 1975, Eckert wrote the play, Tecumseh, which was produced in conjunction with the Scioto Society, in Chillicothe, OH. The play tells of the Shawnee warrior, Tecumseh, and his part in battles along the frontier, in attempts to reclaim Shawnee land, hold of the Europeans, and survive. It is this play that Truman, long a fan of Eckert, adapts, following on his previous Straight Up to See the Sky, an illustrated history of the Trans-Allegheny region, also published by Eclipse (which I have skipped, since I don't have source material). Truman continues his fascination with the early American frontier and his sympathetic portrayals of the native tribes, as they fight to hold on to their lands and way of life, in the face of European expansion. Truman did his research and the clothes, tools and weapons are authentically depicted. Artistically, this was Truman's last big hurrah, with Eclipse, though he still contributed one more series (The spider) and some art on another (Robin Hood, which I do not have source material, any longer).

Synopsis: The story is told in retrospect, an elder addressing the young. 1783, and Tecumseh is 15, part of a war party, led by his brother Chiksika. They ambush a group of whites, who encroach on their land. The fighting is brutal and the whites are routed. The survivors are tortured and killed, as per tradition; but, Tecumseh staps Red Horse from continuing against one man.



Tecumseh wins over the others and they vow to discontinue the practice or torture before death, for their enemies. Elsewhere, the leader of the survivors and the expedition, Simon Kenton, stops a man from scalping a prisoner they took. The man is dying and speaks of Chiksaka and Tecumseh. Kenton is acquainted with Chiksaka, and learns of Tecumseh.

In 1787, the Shawnee move northwest, away from the whites. Tecumseh stays behind, to stop their advance. Elsewhere, in Kentucky, a native arrives at Kenton's Station, while a wedding goes on. He flies a white flag, but is greeted with hostility, until Kenton intercedes. He recognizes the man as Blue Jacket. He was sent by Tecumseh to broker a prisoner exchange. They arrange a meeting place for a swap and Kenton expresses hope of a lasting peace. Blue Jacket admits his people are tired of war.

At the village of Chalahgawtha, Tecumseh returns home to see his sister and little brother, who has become a man and will take his place with the council. There, they debate the exchange and the chance of peace. Tecumseh opposes peace, so long as the whites continue to occupy Shawnee land.



He predicts treachery at the exchange. The council sees the opportunity in the exchange and Chiksika says they must trust at some point, to ever have peace. Tecumseh is placed in charge of the exchange, since he will be most alert to treachery. The meeting occurs and tempers are hot. Kenton meets Tecumseh and remembers him from the fight, back at the river. he lets it go and tries to keep the white contingent in control. the exchange is made. They are interrupted by news that white men have stolen there horses and are swimming them across the river. Fighting breaks out and Chiksika is hit and dies. Tecumseh is hardened against the whites and becomes a terror to them.

The fighting continues, until 1791.



A great victory is won by the Shawnee, with St Clair's defeat, as over a hundred of the general's men are killed and their forces withdraw. However, Gen Anthony Wayne wins a victory at Fallen Timbers and a treay is brokered, taking half of the Shawnee land, including Chalahgawtha. His people move on, but Tecumseh stays behind, with a small band of followers, vowing to continue the fight.

In 1797, Tecumseh, visiting the ground of Chalahgawtha, meets James Galloway and his family, including daughter, Rebecca. Galloway was part of George Rogers Clark's group that burned down the village, but decided he wanted his family to some day live on that land. Tecumseh surprises them. They speak of the land and Galloway's love of it impresses Tecumseh and he makes friends with them and promises they have no fear from the Shawnee. he seems especially taken with Rebecca. he leaves them to rejoin his people.



In Indiana, Tecumseh prepares to go on several long journeys to put his plan to retake the Shawnee lands. He leaves his brother, Tenskwatawa, in charge. To give him authority, he passes on prophecies to share with the people, which he assure him will come true. he warns the brother to do nothing to raise the ire of Governor William Henry Harrison, who governs the territory from the fort, at Vincennes. He is wary of Harrison, who understands the natives and would wipe them out, if given justification.



Tecumseh addresses his followers, telling them of his mission to raise a great alliance of the tribes, create a native army to drive the whites out. He will bring them to their place, Tippecanoe.



At Vincennes, Harrison receives intelligence about Tippecanoe. The prophet speaks of peace, but Harrison is worried by the growth of the village and the absence of Tecumseh. A captain questions his political ambitions, pointing out that critics say he would greatly benefit, politically, by an outbreak of war, which he doesn't deny, but then says Tecumseh is dangerous and is building an army to create an empire that could stretch across the Americas, rivalling the empires of Mexico or Peru. he receives news of a scout, Simon Kenton. He tells Harrison of meeting a chief in Alabama, where Tecumseh was cited, and said he is stirring tribes, from the Iroquois to the Ottowa, the Sioux, Shawnee and more in between. He fears what he might accomplish.

Tecumseh visits the Galloways. He takes Rebecca on a moonlit canoe ride and they speak of the future. Tecumseh loves her, but is afraid that a marriage would not be received well on either side. He departs.

Tecumseh returns home to find Tenskwatawa has been corrupted by his power and has executed 3 rivals. Tecumseh is angered. he warns his brother. He then goes off to meet with Governor Harrison.. They argue over lands in Indiana. Harrison claims they were rightfully bought from the chiefs of the Miami, but Tecumseh says they had no rights over those lands and claims to speak for a united native people. Harrison debates, saying that if the indians were one people they would speak with the same tongue, but Tecumseh counters that Americans are English, German, French, Spanish and Dutch. Tecumseh smashes the gifts of the Americans and berates the leaders of the Miami. Tecumseh brings out the Wyandots, whose lands are in question. They belittle the Miami leader. Tecumseh warns them to leave.

Tecumseh goes off to make more alliances and Tenskwatawa sends out a raid to steal horse and cows, giving Harrison the excuse to send a reconnaissance in force. His orders from Washington forbid a direct attack on Tippecanoe, but he drew out Tenskwatawa. He stirs up the warriors to attack the whites, saying they will be invincible, that he has forseen it. They are slaughtered and Tecumseh returns to find his people dead. Tecumseh berates his brother, for destroying his alliance. His allies are gone and fear controls them. He has destroyed everything in a day. He drives his brother out...



On December 16, 1811, as Tecumseh predicted, a massive earthquake shakes the region, actually causing the Mississippi to reverse its flow. Tecumseh calls his alliance together, but there is only 2,000, not the 50,000 he predicted. They make an alliance with the British, as the Americas go to war with England, again. They are gathered near Thames River, in Ontario, under the command of British general Proctor. Tecumseh is tired of his constant running from a fight with Harrison and demands the stand and fight or he withdraws his forces. proctor needs the men and relents, but Tecumseh doesn't trust him. On October 5, 1813, the two sides meet at the battle of Thames River.



Tecumseh is hit and the native flounder and run. Harrison and his men move in and he has Simon Kenton look among the dead, for Tecumseh. he deliberately misidentifies the body, so that the butchers can scalp him and take souvenirs, then finds the real Tecumseh and gives him a proper burial.

Thoughts: Eckert's play mixes fact with fiction, creating conversations and expressions for which there is no record. It makes for great drama, but has been a chief criticism of him, as a historian. This is a drama, relating the story of Tecumseh, one of the most feared figures of the frontier wars that followed the American Revolution. Tecumseh was rumored to have visions of the future, which often came to pass, though how much is true and how much was embellishment in the retelling is open to interpretation (assuming you even believe in the possibility of seeing into the future). What is true was that he was a very influential leader who did broker alliances between rival tribes, against the common enemy of the European settlers. he was not alone in this, as Pontiac's Rebellion and the Northwest War featured alliances against the whites. however, Tecumseh was a very skilled builder of alliances and a great motivator.

William Henry Harrison had served under Gen Anthony Wayne, in the Northwest War and had political connections in Congress and won an appointment as governor of the Indiana Territory. He was a Democrat and ally of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both reappointed him as governor, giving him wide ranging powers to negotiate the purchase of lands from the natives, for future settlement. He made large purchases from the Miami tribe and pushed them through quickly, so they would be in force when Jefferson left office. He was also a proponent of slavery within the Indiana territory. he was blocked from instituting it in the territory, due to large anti-slavery sentiment. He did meet with Tecumseh, and squabbled over the rights of the Miami to sell the land. Tecumseh led a rebuttal of Harrison, but not in English, as depicted and an ally of Harrison cocked a pistol as a warning that Tecumseh was stirring up the natives to fight. Some claimed that Tecumseh was urging them to attack and kill Harrison. When the soldiers drew swords and fixed bayonets, Tecumseh backed off, but the die was cast. Harrison gained orders to move against Tippecanoe and put an end to the Confederacy, and used Tenskwatawa's delusions to egg him into battle, slaughtering the natives and burning the village to the ground. tecumseh's confederation broke apart. Tecumseh did aid the British against the Americans and Harrison commanded troops in the region, winning the Battle of Thames River, one of the few major American victories in the War of 1812, second only to the Battle of New Orleans (which occurred after the signing of a peace treaty, unknown to both commanders). Tecumseh was killed in the battle and his body mutilated.

Harrison used his victories at Tippecanoe and Thames River to build his political career. He ran for the presidency in 1836 and again in 1840, winning the office, but dying one month into his administration, setting off a constitutional crises about the succession.

Tecumseh became the stuff of legends and much that has been written is based on folklore, as much as documented record and the records are tainted by POV. To the natives, he was a great warrior and leader and Eckert captures that image of him and suggests the elements of the legends, while keeping things to the events, with dramatic embellishment.

Truman sticks to the story and dialogue of the play, while filling his pages with period-authentic clothes and weapons and the beauty of the Ohio Valley, in its unspoiled past. He handles the politics of both sides and tries to humanize the man, though with Eckert's words as a guide. The art is fantastic and Truman handles it all, including the lettering and coloring. It is a rich work of drama and history and a fine companion to both Wilderness and Straight Up to See the Sky, while also continuing his work on Scout, in presenting native heroes. Truman is always respectful and presents the native characters as people, not legends. You see real personalties, humor, personal quirks; never the stereotype of Hollywood. The story is perhaps not quite as rich as Wilderness and the latter's stark black and white images have a real power to them. Still, Tecumseh succeeds as an important piece of work, both historically and artistically.

Next, we close out our looks at Tim Truman's 4Winds with his last series for Eclipse: his adaptation and updating of the pulp hero, The Spider.