If there are two things which tie every theme in Bill’s work together in the drum series, one is “roadtrip” and the other is “daddy”. This entire book is, in its way, a roadtrip.
In the trips in this section,, it’s the dangerous strangers, the bikers, truck drivers and beasts. It’s hot sex with guys and groups, it’s disorienting, being captive, the flashback… It’s meeting the good Samaritan who puts the entire situation in perspective.
Gay pulp fiction of the time, starting in the 60’s and 70’s, paralleled this with bikers and hitchhikers on the road as great fantasy sexual partners. Then, of course, came Smoky and the Bandit late in the 70’s, and the truckdriver as heroic outlaw, and we see more and more truckers in Bill’s work, along with a hot muscle car for good effect now and then.
Also, a few barn visits along the way, which make Big City life look unusually welcoming by contrast. Remember, rural people have the biggest cocks and the least inhibitions.
At least in the world of comics.
