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Rip Off Press March 1976
Subvert Comics #3 presents one book-length story, which is only titled “Trashman” inside the book but is called “The Road That Knows No Law” on the front cover. Unlike the depiction on the cover, Trashman doesn’t ride his motorcycle on “the road” anywhere in the story, though he does steal a motorcycle near the end of the book.
The “road” in question is known as Route Zero: a 40-lane, 3000-mile super-highway built by the government that is intentionally not governed by any laws. Once on the highway, drivers can get away with speeding, road rage, and even murder. One gets the sense that Spain Rodriguez built the entire story just to have Trashman engaged in such a lawless adventure on a cross-country highway.
So the story purportedly begins on the inside front cover with Trashman having sex with a woman, but as it turns out she doesn’t appear anywhere else in the rest of the book. Rodriguez explains the scene by stating, “Due to numerous complaints about the dearth of sexual material in our previous issue we have decided to get this one off to a fast start.” And so he does!
The real adventure gets going on the next page, as Trashman is asked by the leader of the science laboratory in the liberated zone (where Trashman lives) to recover a stolen “vital part” of a revolutionary new power generator. Tracking down the vital part will be a challenge, since it was secretly hidden in the hubcap of a vehicle belonging to a well-protected oil tycoon named Howard Mantee. The leader tells Trashman that the vehicle (with the hubcap) will be part of a convoy that the oil tycoon will soon be traveling with on Route Zero. Trashman’s mission is to get on the highway, track down and infiltrate the convoy, find the hubcap in question, and steal back the vital part. After conferring with four of his buddies, Trashman accepts the mission and also agrees to work with a woman from the leader’s organization named Prunella Pringledorf.
All of this exposition is merely pretext to getting Trashman on an open road with some really fast and dangerous vehicles, accompanied by his outlaw buddies and this Prunella chick. Their adventure soon leads them to the oil tycoon’s convoy and a series of violent conflicts, all of which Trashman handles with his usual aplomb.
As is sometimes the case with Rodriguez’s stories, some of the story is a bit muddled as Trashman barrels through one challenge to the next, but it all moves along at a quick pace and offers plenty of action. The concept of the “road that knows no law” is a good setting for Trashman to chew some scenery and blast a few bad guys.
With only three issues, Subvert Comics didn’t have a long run, but it gave underground comic fans (especially those who came from mainstream comics) their own superhero to root for. Trashman was something new and different and, though little evidence exists to prove it, it’s entirely plausible that Trashman had some influence on the development of anti-hero entertainment in the ’70s and ’80s, like Mad Max films and the V for Vendetta comics.
Whether or not Trashman was a direct influence on these works (which are awesome on their own), Spain Rodriguez’s signature character was the first in a long wave of anti-heroes who routinely used slang and curse words, thoroughly enjoyed sex, and committed shameless violence in the name of justice. The fact that he was a socialist is almost an afterthought, though all of his fans would (or should) be sure to trumpet that fact.