The Gunslinger.

This is a new character for the comic strip my friend Podder and I are working on, a Tank Girl homage/ripoff called Quinn Adina. He's based on a man who may well be one of my ancestors, the notorious Western gunfighter "Mysterious" David Allen Mather. Apparently David Mather was descended from Cotton and Increase Mather, two men of Salem, Massachusetts, who were involved in stopping the infamous Salem witch trials. The Salem Mathers emigrated to America from the North West of England, and actually lived just outside Wigan (where my family is from). Thus, there is a very strong possibility that David Mather is one of my ancestors.

In the grand scheme of Western gunslingers, there were three typical "kinds" of gunslinger lawmen. There was the Bat Masterson kind, who would give you a chance to surrender. There was the "Wild" Bill Hickok kind, who would "post" you out of town (post a bill in town ordering you to get out of town by sundown, at which time you would be shot on sight). Then, there was the "Mysterious" Dave Mather kind, who would shoot you on sight -- no warnings, no postings, no talk.

In keeping with this tradition, this strip's character -- simply called The Gunslinger -- will shoot on sight those who have done wrong, either by him or by others. Living by the principles, fashions and traditions of the old West, he is a man out of sync with time. A dark, secretive character, he is neither good nor evil: to paraphrase Johnny Cash, he walks the line. Without further ado, I introduce to you the Gunslinger.