Today isn't just Frazetta's birthday. It's also the anniversary of the nativity of another of my long-time faves, Timothy "Tim" Truman.

Timothy Truman grew up in small-town West Virginia. spending his childhood reading comics and Conan paperbacks. One of his favorite comics writers was--and remains--Gardner F. Fox. Little did he know at the time, but someday Tim would illustrate the last sword-and-sorcery tale that Gar Fox ever wrote and relaunch Hawkman—a character created by Fox—to critical acclaim.

Tim decided early on that he was going to make a living in comics. As soon as it was feasible, he headed off to study at The Kubert School. Truman graduated in 1981. With a portfolio full of pro-level work—and more than his share of energy and ambition—Timothy set off to make his mark.

Truman’s classic early rendition of the Cimmerian for Ares, Special Edition Number 1, Summer 1983 . — Truman’s classic early rendition of the Cimmerian for *Ares, Special Edition Number 1*, Summer 1983 .

Tim's first paying gig was for TSR and he also did work for gaming magazines such as Ares around that time as well. At that point, I would describe his style as "Joe Kubert meets 1970s Jim Starlin". Powerful stuff. For a 1983 issue of Ares magazine, Truman crafted a truly excellent rendition of Conan. If somebody wants to put together an artbook collecting Timothy's RPG/gaming work from that period, my money is right here for the taking.

In 1983, Truman got a gig illustrating the excellent Starslayer comic published by First Comics. Very soon after, Tim--along with John Ostrander--created "GrimJack", a character with admittedly Howardian inspirations—along with Hammett and others—which debuted as a back-up feature in Starslayer.

Tim’s T-shirt design featuring Starslayer and GrimJack from 1984.

GrimJack, a hardboiled mercenary/manhunter in a transdimensional city where guns sometimes work but swords always work, was a grim and gritty comics protagonist years before such became fashionable in mainstream comics. In fact, it's generally acknowledged that GrimJack was the first comic series to have "grim and gritty" regularly used to describe it.

Fantasy/sci-fi legend, Roger Zelazny, was an avowed fan of Grimjack from the beginning and even wrote an intro for the GrimJack: Demon Knight graphic novel. Zelazny and Truman also both contribute to GRRM's "Wild Cards" shared-universe series.

GrimJack ran for almost ten years until First Comics’ bankruptcy tied up the publishing rights—kinda like how the Lancer bankruptcy prohibited any Conan paperbacks from being published for half a decade. Truman and Ostrander have returned to doing GrimJack miniseries off and on since 2005 to general acclaim. The Russo Brothers recently optioned the character to develop the property into a TV series.

In 1985, Truman put out his own Scout series, featuring Emanuel Santana, an Apache fighting against all and sundry in a near-future dystopia. The action was brutal and the storyline was full of surprises, making it one of the big independent comics successes of the late '80s. The series was optioned as a movie a little over a year ago.

I got the chance to meet Mr. Truman at a 1990 conference in Wisconsin. He was very approachable and cool to talk to. We engaged in badinage regarding everything from Conan to guitar playing. I had a great time at that conference and meeting Tim was a true highlight.

In the early '90s, Truman went on to write and illustrate two more pulp-inspired comics. One would become the award-winning Hawkworld series and graphic novel. Looking back to the classic 60s Gardner Fox Hawkman comics for inspiration, Truman also introduced elements from Burroughs and Howard, in the process creating a thoroughly modern sequential art saga. His other project was a re-envisioning of the possibly insane pulp vigilante, The Spider, which was over-the-top, pulpish fun.

Also in the early '90s, Truman contributed to the popular Wormwood RPG supplement from Palladium Games, thereby getting back to his gaming roots. Anyone else notice a Howardian/pulpster work ethic here? Truman kept working incessantly, "splashing" various fields, nearly always to popular/critical acclaim.

Meanwhile, Mr. Truman had the bit in his teeth, bringing "Westerns"—in myriad forms—back to the comics market. His first was the Wilderness epic, which brought the story of American "renegade", Simon Girty, to a new audience--including yours truly. Truman's opus is now considered a "bible" by Mountain Man reenactors, and received plaudits from respected American historians. Related volumes followed: Tecumseh!--a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize winning author, Allen W. Eckert--and Straight Up to See the Sky.

Timbo kept hard at it bringing sequential art Westerns to the masses. His work--with award-winning author, Joe R. Lansdale--on the Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo series is considered one of the seminal works in the last quarter-century in regards to bringing Western comics back to relevance. Truman's Lone Ranger miniseries is viewed as one of the best adaptations of the iconic character, period. A quote from Truman:

"Doing these books in the 90's was a special treat for me, in that they proved to any who doubted it that the Western genre could still be a valid and popular springboard for entertaining comics stories."

While boot-strapping a Western comics renaissance, Truman also relaunched the Turok franchise for Valiant Comics, bringing a grittier, Howardian feel to the venerable Dell Comics character. Dinosaurs and lost races with a bad-ass Native American protagonist? Yeah, I voted with my wallet.

As the twenty-first century took its first baby steps, Timothy kept working all the artistic ground he'd homesteaded for the previous two decades and then some.

Back in the '80s, Truman had contributed artwork for The Savage Sword of Conan #176. In 2006, he teamed up with Joe Lansdale to put out the "Songs of the Dead" miniseries for Dark Horse Comics. While I'm not all that crazy about Lansdale's storyline, Tim's rendition of the Cimmerian is, to my mind, one of the more accurate ones out there. Truman's Conan is big and, yet, "rangy", just as described by Robert E. Howard.

In 2008, Mr. Truman took on the writing gig for DHC's Conan series with Argentine artist, Tomas Giorello, holding down the art chores. For decades, Truman had made plain his love for REH and S&S/fantasy. Now, he could finally tackle writing the Cimmerian. For the next several years, Mr. Truman crafted some of the best Conan comics since the days of Roy Thomas at Marvel, his love for the character shining through in every issue.

In 2013, Timothy Truman was Guest of Honor at Howard Days in Cross Plains. He and Joe Lansdale participated on several interesting panels. I got to chat with Mr. Truman numerous times over the course of two days and he was still as friendly and cool as he was back in 1990. Tim's speech at the Saturday Night Banquet was possibly the best I've heard, and I've attended five Howard Days.

After leaving the Dark Horse Conan comic, Timbo has stayed plenty busy doing Joe Lansdale book covers, artwork for rock bands and working on a new Scout series. He’s also contributed a fair amount of artwork to the new Modiphius Conan RPG. Oh, and he does commisions all the time. I personally know several satisfied people he’s done commissions for. So, the man obviously still has no shortage of creative projects. I’m looking forward to the next forty years.

Happy birthday, Tim!

Feel free to check out the gallery of Truman art below.