‘Man of Steel’ Back at the Wheel

The Edmonton Journal devoted four full pages Oct. 10 to a non-fiction comic about Dave Eamer, “North America’s first paraplegic long-haul trucker.” Paralyzed from the waist down in

1991 when he drove off a cliff to avoid an oncoming four-wheeler, Eamer is now back in the cab. “Man of Steel” was written by Journal writer David Staples, who has known Eamer for years, and illustrated by Jill Stanton, a University of Alberta fine arts student who spent hours talking with Eamer before tackling the project.

Eamer “is a hero of mine,” Staples says, and turning him into a comics character “felt risky. It made us really nervous. But people liked the fact that we tried something different. We’re always looking for ways to attract younger readers.” For copies, call (780) 498-5702.


HE MIGHT EVEN LOOK LIKE A BULLDOG
The hero of “Independent Trucker,” a new song on Brooks and Dunn’s The Greatest Hits Collection II, is a second-generation driver nicknamed Mack by his mother, who “swears to me that I was conceived / At a big-rig dealership.”

The chorus: “I’m an independent trucker / A mother-lovin’ overloaded owner-operator / Just a-tearin’ up the two-lane road.”

Ronnie Dunn’s father was a truck driver, but this song is sung by Kix Brooks (in the hat) and written by Chris Stapleton and Jeffrey Steele. Steele also wrote the Trace Adkins trucking song “Chrome,” about a woman whose favorite color that is.


HOLE IN THE HEAD? NO PROBLEM for this trucker
Amy Holder of Paris Crossing, Ind., steered her big rig safely to a stop on I-44 near Bourbon, Mo. – after being shot in the head on her 34th birthday.

“I didn’t want to wreck the truck,” Holder told The Indianapolis Star. “I just did what I had to do.”

Police later arrested two teenagers who said they were shooting at highway signs. The small-caliber bullet left Holder’s skull about 2 inches from where it went in. She went home from the hospital with only a few stitches.


TRY THAT ON FOR SIZE
“Guys selling shoes in the mall a month ago are driving trucks. It’s scary.”
– Trucker Richard Parquette of Newaygo, Mich., quoted in The Grand Rapids Press.

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WAITING ON THE SALT TRUCK
“I just wish they were Virginia peanuts.”
– W.J. Doughtie, 83, of Suffolk, Va., after a truck overturned in his yard and dumped 46,000 pounds of Georgia peanuts.

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
“Fully loaded, I’m an 80,000-pound bullet.”
– Highway Watch recruit Curtis Johnson, telling The Denver Post about fears of terrorists commandeering his truck.

THE LAND WHERE RAIL REIGNS
“Why has Europe been shipping the majority of freight via rail instead of trucks for decades now? They’ve been using common sense, that’s why.”
– John Rudolph of Stuarts Draft, Va., in an Augusta Free Press opinion column.


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