Trashman, Agent of the 6th International

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/TrashmanCover.jpg


Anyone ever read this?

I recently discovered this gem from the Underground Comix era, and its pretty good. It's a left-wing adventure/superhero strip by the late Spain Rodriguez.

It's very reminiscent of the type of thing that would show up in 2000AD and V for Vendetta years later: A violent story featuring a strong anti-authoritarian character with a strong leftist bent fighting in a crapsack post-nuclear world.

The difference here is that Trashman as a character is very much a product of the New Left era, so it's very much a part of its time (for better and for worse). It's also VERY explicit in its socialist leanings. Trashman is a part of an overall socialist revolutionary movement in this post-nuclear America, which already has a network of liberated territories throughout the country. They even have a story where they explain how they've instituted socialist economics and collective ownership into their manufacturing, having removed the profit motive and focusing the productive forces of the territories in such a way that they have greatly shortened the work day (and halved the over all work year) whilst still being able to produce fuel-efficient vehicles for the masses.

It's actually quite good, I gotta say. I recommend it.

[Os Cangaceiros]

What was the 5th international?

[Red Commissar]

I feel like I've seen that cover before somehow, but it's the first I've heard of this comic. Where did you pick it up from?


What was the 5th international?

Post-apoc man, got to drive it home by skipping over numbers. Adds more post-apoc crud when you do open with something like "IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE FIFTH WORLD WAR...."

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

@Red Commissar

I actually torrented it. Just search for "Trashman Lives torrent" and you'll find it. The cover will look like this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCBa0twN2EI/ULahwH-4VlI/AAAAAAAAAZo/rVxtDTsfFe4/s1600/trashman2.jpg


It's good stuff, but remember that it's a product of the New Left era, so buyer beware (It's not racist or misogynistic, but it can be un-PC in places). It's over all message is awesome though, and if you love adventure comics it's a ton of fun.

[Queen Mab]

6th International? So he's a dirty Trot?

[motion denied]

Long live the 6th International! Long Live proletarian internationalism!

Let's build the revolutionary party of the proletariat!

Here, buy this newspaper!

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

6th International? So he's a dirty Trot?

The ideology is fairly vague, but Rodriguez was a lifelong member of the Socialist Labor Party, so its mostly grounded in DeLeonism.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Also, for anyone whose interested...

One of Spain Rodriguez's last completed projects was this graphic biography of Che Guevera. (http://www.amazon.com/Che-Graphic-Biography-Spain-Rodriguez/dp/1844671682/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392575099&sr=1-2&keywords=spain+rodriguez) It's pretty good, but just a little too worshipful in tone in my opinion.

[Red Commissar]

@Red Commissar

I actually torrented it. Just search for "Trashman Lives torrent" and you'll find it. The cover will look like this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCBa0twN2EI/ULahwH-4VlI/AAAAAAAAAZo/rVxtDTsfFe4/s1600/trashman2.jpg


It's good stuff, but remember that it's a product of the New Left era, so buyer beware (It's not racist or misogynistic, but it can be un-PC in places). It's over all message is awesome though, and if you love adventure comics it's a ton of fun.

I thought you had gotten a hard copy which is why I asked, but I'll grab it (few seeders though). I have a tablet I use for digital comics, legal and otherwise, so I'm good with that.

I'm a bit of a sucker for old comics, especially these kinds which for various reasons were never republished in recent years. It's the same issue with the print industry in general, when a book isn't republished it'll vanish and with it that person's life work. It's happened with people who worked in the big dogs like DC or Marvel, so it stands to reason that the underground ones will be hurt even worse by it. Spain Rodriguez at least continued working after that and at least got some industry recognition, some people didn't get that level of success. The content of these old comics is expected, I remember going through another one recently, American Flagg, which was pretty gratuitous with sexual things.

I've heard of Spain Rodriguez before but never looked at what he had worked on. Looking at his list of comics, I remember reading "Dark Hotel" over on Salon.com way back when one night when I was very bored, probably over ten years ago now. I don't remember how I got across it (maybe stumbleupon?) and read the whole thing then. It never came to my mind until I read the wiki article. Unfortunately it seems that I can't access that comic anymore, the archive site salon has is filled with broken images. Its new home (http://www.laweekly.com/2004-01-29/art-books/the-dark-hotel/#) at LA Weekly is broken too.

[Red Commissar]

Well I finally managed to get good download speeds on Trashman so I got to reading it over the past week. It's definitely a relic of the times it was written in, but even then it was an amusing read. It's a weird mix, at certain points the comic is serious about its message and in other points it comes off as very irreverent and breaking the fourth wall. There's one point I remember when Trashman was escaping from some soldiers, and seeing that he had some time before springing a trap, decides to roll up a joint and smoke. I also remember how in his origin story they make fun of his ineptitude criminal (attributing it to his lack of business sense) when he tries to rob someone for some food, with the victim stating that he does not have any food on him but will give $15, to which Trashman leaves in frustration.

I'll say though that there was a fixation on sex, but that was common for underground comix then I guess. Rodriguez even referred to it himself in one of the issues where he says that he's been made aware of complaints about the sex and nudity, so he'll just come out the gate with it early by exploding it all over the first page. Seems you're guaranteed in the strips to see Trashman in a sexual encounter in just about every story, though he does seem to get an STD at one point. One of those stories seems to go overboard though, like where Trashman and his friend get kidnapped by a weird group of feminists with strong misandry simply referred to as "She-Devils" and ended up reminding me of a certain Futurama episode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Women_in_the_Mood).

What was interesting to me was it seemed that Rodriguez had put thought into a world for Trashman, with even his political side showing more when Trashman was participating in a factory assembly line run under the principles of industrial democracy and tackling racism in his own unique way. He probably could've kept this going longer, but I guess by the times the 80s rolled around Trashman came off more as a relic of 60s-70s radical politics than something relevant, especially with the demoralization of activists then with the rise of neo-liberalism in politics as well as several of their own making a 180 in their politics.